


Under Diffrent Skies

by Bunnyslugz



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angry Sasuke is a feral sasuke, Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Be careful who you decide to trust in this fic, Depression, Dysfunctional Family, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone is morally ambiguous, Family Dynamics, Family Issues, He's not getting out, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Information broker Ino yamanaka, Karin is Naruto's cousin, M/M, Minor Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Naruto is a bit ooc but not really, Naruto is smart but is still an idiot, Naruto kinda has a Savior complex, Sakura Haruno is a good friend, Sasuke is grumpy but he gets better, Shikamaru is tired of everyone, Slow Burn, The sharingan has more powers, Tw for extreme emotional detatchment, Uchiha Sasuke Being an Asshole, Unreliable Narrator, Uzumaki Naruto Being an Idiot, fuck the Uchiha elders, he gets better about it tho, he just wants everyone to get along, hinata is scary, jiraiya is in jail, magical doctor Sakura Haruno, plot heavy, she stabbed someone, when i say slow burn i mean the ice caps in anartica are melting faster than this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22766590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunnyslugz/pseuds/Bunnyslugz
Summary: In the big magical city of Konoha there exists a perilous but strictly organized underground run by powerful families that have been going strong for centuries. Evidence of an old force is resurging and the families are at Ill ease.Sasuke Uchiha, heir to the feared Uchiha line, struggles to come to terms with his eventual leadership, but loathes his elders way of ruling.Naruto Uzumaki, soon to be boss of the powerful Uzumaki family is left dealing with his parents sudden death, and resolves to make the murderer pay.What happens when the two childhood rivals are forced to come to a shaky truce between their hostile families and fight along side eachother?
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 16
Kudos: 21





	1. I Don't Want to Talk About It

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first Ao3 work 🎉🎊!!! This will be multiple chapters, probably pretty lengthy so buckle the fuck up. (And maybe will become a series if I feel like it.) Just some things before we start. The POV switches between Naruto and Sasuke each chapter and sometimes in one, but mainly each chapter. The POV might switch to another character but it will only be breif, never for a full chapter. I will try to make the POV switches as gracefully and as clear as possible so it wont be jarring or confusing. There are OC's and some are apart of the main story but they do not and will not ever over shadow the main characters or pair which are Naruto and Sasuke and the Naruto cast. Most of the OC's are family members to flesh out the world and plot. This is a plot heavy story and the slow burn is REALLY slow. I dont intend them to like eachother or even be friends for a long time, they are actually enemies, this isnt a omg I antagonise you because I really like you story they actually absloutely fucking despise eachother lmao. I also want to say there are creatures beasts and non human things I have made up that are in this story because i felt it would be unrealistic and boring if Naruto was the only non human. Naruto is not human in this story, he looks human but he is a jinchuriki which in their world classifies as not human. Some humans have a strong dislike for non humans in this story so if you are sensitive to racial animosity just giving you a heads up. Also the writing is kinda shaky in this chapter but I assure you it gets smoother in the next. I think that's everything! So without further adieu heres the first chapter!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER EDITED: APR 6 2020
> 
> Some rewording/ Scentence changes.
> 
> The scenes are the same.

_Sasuke sat back in his chair, thumbing at an eraser_ _until it had a slight dent in the side. Listening to the teacher drone on made his head fall a couple times, his focus slipping until his drooping eyes caught sight of the new kid with the near comical yellow hair. He was sure if he stared long enough it would burn his retinas right out of his sockets._

 _He let out a sigh and muttered under his breath "Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. Who comes into a private middle school with that type of hair? There is such thing as a working glamour_ _."_

_Then again, Sasuke thought, he made fast friends with Sakura who just as easily fit into his category with her bright pink locks._

_"How ridiculous." He repeated and drifted off to a short hour long nap_

_************************************_

  
  


"Not good enough."A gruff voice spat. 

The metallic ping of a bullet hitting the floor signaled another failed product. Sasuke just wanted to take his bullheaded cousin and go home; it was glaringly obvious this disastrous deal wasnt going to go any where good.

His cousin Taichi who lead the deal towered over a thin, scrawny boy spotted with grease and oil stains. The poor boy looked like he was about to drop dead on the spot under the withering gaze Taichi fixed upon him. Normally they dealt with the boy's father, but the man was abroad on a business trip that left his son to handle his main shop in Konoha. Which unfortunately meant the young man was left to deal with the Uchiha's who always came on Saturday's to collect their weekly shipment of bullets. 

Sasuke felt pity was an insult, he would never want to be pitied, but the sight of the boy trembling in a cold sweat, biting his nails to the nub put him at odds with himself. He had to feel sorry him. 

It reminded him of the days he spent swamped with the responsibilities of his less than responsible aunts and uncles. Although he was much younger and smaller than this boy during those times, the feeling transcended age and build. That clawing fear that someone may have the upper hand, the ever present possibility of failure, the inescapable reality that whatever grand reputation those before him built could fall and slip through the cracks because of one mistake. 

_Mistakes are bred out of carelessness, carelessness is born from incompetence. If a mistake is made and you dont fix it you are incompetent and you should not stand for incompetence._

Sasuke sighed inwardly as his mother's harsh, trained words billowed through his mind at the mere thought of a mistake being made. Sometimes it seemed like the Uchiha matriarch was still behind him, poking in between his shoulders to inform of his slouching, to nag him endlessly about proper business edicate and to shamelessly point out his flaws.

But that was just how the infamous cantankerous Mikoto Uchiha was, and nobody dared to tell her to be anyone else unless they fancied a Kunai shoved down their throat. 

As much pain as it brought to think about it, he missed his mother a great deal. Enough to still ache after all these years at her empty spot in his life.

A pathetic pop from his cousins gun pulled him from his musings and registered yet another bullet that was 'not good enough'. This had been the third time one of the dealers bullets had failed, the meager capsules always bursted before it hit the intended target. He knew his cousin was beginning to get restless and Sasuke couldn't help but to wonder if he really would have to clean up a body tonight. 

_Taichi, you don't have many, but please have a working brain cell tonight and decide to not kill this boy. Please have one functioning thought of what consequences are. I know you lack commom sense severely but please._

His silent mental pleads were ignored as Taichi had started loading a round of his own bullets in his gun.

Just as he was about to reach out and grab Taichi by his shoulder to prevent the young mans untimely demise, the boy broke off in a sprint towards the back of the workshop. 

At first he thought he was running and it seemed Taichi did too because Sasuke had to lock his arms around his stupid cousin from running after him. Yet despite the Uchiha's shared conclusions, the boy ran back towards them a few minutes later.

Sasuke could see impatience mar his cousin's thick black brows when the boy presented a pile of peculiar blue glowing bullets cradled in his palms.

"Mr. Uchiha, please try these."The boy stepped back closer to an exit and shuffled nervously "...uh– they aren't my father's but, hopefully they'll be satisfactory."

After brief observation, Sasuke gathered that the bullets carried a form of manufactured magic of which he's never seen before.

Synthetic forms of weaponized magic were normally yellow, modeled after the trace of light left solely by destructive spells. However, these odd bullets were tinted blue and blue colored magic was prescice, powerful, but exceedingly difficult to contain in weapons due to it's finicky nature. He could only imagine how the boy had managed to get that type of power packed into one tiny bullet. 

Sasuke supposed he could see the benefits. Normal magical bullets were designed to blow up. Dispelling all of the aimless energy that destructive magic harnessed into the intended target. The more controlled energy that electric based magic held could greatly reduce the chance that an ally would get harmed by stray magic out put.

_How reckless. Smart. But reckless._

His cousin thumbed at the small smooth pieces of metal in his palms, occasionally lifting one up to the fluorescent workshop lights to examine it's contents. The critical glance at his product had the young boy fidgeting again with his teeth clenched around his thumbnail and his body trembling like a leaf.

Sasuke noticed a small hand gun poking out of the boys back pocket and decided that maybe the boy would be fine. Just maybe.

After a few minutes of fiddling with the bullet Taichi emitted an annoyed grunt and stuffed the ammo into his gun. The tension in the warehouse came to a peak as he took aim for the center.

The trigger clicked pitifully, and nothing came after.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. 

_Great, how anti-climat–_

A loud electric crack followed by a blinding flash of light interrupted his thoughts and startled him to his feet. 

Sasuke's hand was already on the knife tucked in his back pocket and like a startled animal he searched his surroundings for a threat. Belatedly, he realized it had been the delayed reaction from the bullets, the kick back had Taichi a few steps back from his original place. 

A wide smile split his cousin's face at the sight of the mostly burnt target paper opposite of him. He hastily loaded more of the dangerous bullets into his gun. "How much are these?"

Another two raucous pops of the firearm rang out, this time his cousin stood firmly, his knuckles whitening with how tightly he was gripping his gun.

He was thinking for what felt like the hundredth time in his life that Taichi–despite many medical records saying otherwise–had a few loose screws.

"I will not charge because of my failure with the first ones."The boy gestures towards the two crates near the back of the warehouse "Please take them."

"Ah! Good! Good!"Taichi exclaims "Maybe I didn't make a mistake of not killing you a few minutes ago!"

The young gun dealer's hollow laugh didn't sound like he really found the threat on his life humorous.

Sasuke sat back down on the bench folding one of of his legs against his chest and quietly watched his cousin follow the boy to the back of the workshop. 

Letting out a weary breath he let his head fall onto his knees.

 _Fuck this. Intimidation isn't an effective way to do business mother and father would be so ashamed._

He knew why his cousin was overly forceful when it came to who the family dealt but it didn't erase his hatred for how business was handled now that his parents were no longer alive. 

Much to his chagrin, the elder part of the Uchiha family took charge after his father fell and under their scrupulous rule no amount of slip ups could be tolerated. How many variables were against them or out of their control didn't matter, if his cousin wasn't able to complete his job then the fault was on his cousin and no one elses. He would be subjected to whatever punishment they see fit. Which was more often than not grossly obtuse compared to the mistake made. 

The elders operated under the belief that if any of their numerous enemies caught wind that they may be struggling without the proper heads to guide them, all hell would break loose and the cause would not be because of them, but of the inadequacy of those beneath them. 

_As if they aren't the main cause of this family going to shit._

His mental cursing of the elder's were interrupted when he caught the tail end of his cousin yelling, according to his nearly indecipherable shouting, the amount of bullets in the crates were less than what they needed. 

When Taichi began to once again threaten the boys life, he tuned him out in favor of his own thoughts.

His eldest brother Itachi had always said if you have to make a death threat, then you aren't confident at all to make them fear you otherwise. 

His shoulders slouched as he wondered how his brother would handle all of this, probably with far more grace than Taichi could.

After their parents were killed his brother had disappeared. His room emptied, all traces of his presence, even his scent was gone two days after the incident. Everyone of his family members suspects that he killed them, but he thinks otherwise. A set up of some kind or bad timing. Itachi always expressed his deep desire to leave the family in private, that he longed to disappear. He swore that he would never blame Itachi for his parents death.

_Not Itachi._

Uninvited memories of his brother's lessons and his insightful comments on their midday walks swam around his mind like a fish in a bowl.

_Not him. He would never be a murderer._

"Sasuke!"His cousin called "Help me get this crate onto the truck."

The dealer politely bent at the waist as they took their usual non magical shipments, along with the new blue colored bullets. 

They had a mission tomorrow night to protect a high class Sanagakure government official from harm as he visited Konoha to do dirty business. Although he didn't know what business ,he was sure it was important by the way they had requested twenty seven stationed guards, and four snipers around the meeting building. 

His cousin slammed the two crates he was holding onto the back of the truck packing them up tight so they wouldn't slide around the back as they drove. He could tell he wasn't very enthused about having half the ammo they were promised. Sasuke thought they were plenty by the weight he was hauling but he could see why his cousin was miffed. The Uchiha's were always better off safe than sorry, assurance and reassurance was always the slow methodical path taken.

He jumped onto the back of the truck and dropped two more stacked bullet crates into the corner.

"You know you're going to have to start leading deals soon."His cousin drawled from behind him.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

_This again._

He pulled the buckles from the sides of the back of the truck a little more aggressively than needed. A pause. Sasuke's hope that he would get the hint he didn't want to talk about it were dashed a moment later.

"Sasuke?"

"I don't want to talk about it."He said shortly 

He tightened the straps and threw a heavy tarp over the crates, hiding them from the authorities that might spot them and start questioning about the Uchiha fan symbol carelessly stamped on top.

"I'm not trying to start a fight Sasuke."His voice took that familiar soft tone he always had when talking seriously with his favorite cousin "I just want you to be able to do what needs to be done for the family" 

Sasuke spun around to face his cousin. Frustration bubbled quickly in his chest causing his next words to come out harsher than he intended.

"I told you I don't want to fucking talk about it, drop it."

Taichi shook his head and exhaled forcefully through his nostrils "You need to be _prepared_ Sasuke, how the fuck are you going to keep yourself and the family in order in the future when you refuse to even talk about your own."

"Prepared?"He walked to the back edge of the truck and stood inches away from Taichi, his heart racing angrily in his ears "Nothing could prepare me for managing the whole family Taichi!" 

Taichi's face scrunched jabbing his finger into Sasuke's shoulder. "You've been trained for this your whole life, from birth! The family has been strong for years, you're not managing, you're leading!"Taichi snarled back his black brows knit furiously across his forehead "The family even way back when it was a clan had everyone being self sufficient! Pulling their own weight!"

Sasuke wanted to scream. 

_How can he not understand that it isn't that simple! How!_

Sasuke's calloused knuckles whitened, his fists clenched at his sides, shaking with the anger he desperately tried not to let explode under the pressure of Taichi's words.

"Not the way my father has left it."He spat

The moment it was uttered Sasuke's heart clenched in its place behind his ribs. It was all too soon to take it back. 

His cousin's face fell, shadows passing over his features with his amber eyes trained to the ground. He opened his mouth to speak but, as if the night was finally heading Sasuke's call for silence, a gust of wind rustled between them, drowning out any noise that could pass through.

Once the wind settled, Sasuke slammed the back of the truck closed and headed for the passenger side of the vehicle. Taichi dropped himself in the driver's seat and started the car, he and Sasuke said nothing else until they got back to the Uchiha residence

・・・・🍥・・・・🍅・・・・

The Uchiha family disguised themselves as an exclusive gated community neighborhood. All who lived there were Uchiha's and allies that made oaths that they would never leave or betray the family. Those who were married in were especially kept to high standards, even an utterance of Uchiha business could cost them something worse than death. Taichi pressed his golden card with the etched Uchiha fan symbol to the scanner and gave a curt nod to the black suited guards standing in the booths at the entrance. A quiet click triggered the tall, thick metal gates to squeak open.

"Look."Taichi's gravelly voice sighed, breaking the awkward silence that had settled between them "I know you've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders ahead, I'm sorry for insinuating it was easy...I just worry about you is all."

Sasuke knew his cousin had his well being in mind, something deep in him wanted to continue to be mad at him, to keep arguing until he felt satisfied enough to let it go.

 _But what good would that do?_ _Stop being childish._

His inner voice scolded him with the same intensity of an annoyed patriarch. 

There was even a slight chance that he might've heard his father say something similarly before and the embarrassment that he might come off as a petulant child stamped down any stubborn emotions that his heart could muster. So he swallowed his pride and did the adult thing to do. 

"I know you mean well Taichi." his voice still had an edge of annoyance, but it was something he couldn't help "I don't want to talk about it, at least not until I really have to take over."

"Alright, I wont," The scar over the left side of Taichi's cheek lifted as he flashed Sasuke a grin "I swear on my dad's bald ass head." 

Sasuke scoffed. "He would kill you if he heard that."

Taichi cackled raucously as he parked the car in a dimly lit cul de sac where a three story warehouse sat along with a couple other storage units.

Sasuke unbuckled his seat belt and leapt onto the pavement below, stretching away the strain the thirty minute car ride had on his joints. He glanced up to view the lonely sight of the night sky splayed above him, starless with the bright full moon tinting his surroundings in greyish blues.

A cool breeze grazed the back of his neck sending a shiver down his spine. Goose bumps appeared up his arms but he didn't feel particularly bothered by it. 

He was opening the back of the truck when soft grey fabric assaulted the right side of his face and obstructed his vision. He snatched the jacket from his head, scowling at Taichi.

"What was that for!" Sasuke snapped 

"No use in freezing your ass off, told you to bring a jacket. it's cold as fuck and you have on short sleeves."

"You didn't have to throw it at me! Also I told you the cold doesn't affect me you idiot!"

" _Wear it._ "Taichi growled through his teeth

Sasuke rolled his eyes and shoved his arms through the jacket wrapping it around him. It sagged poorly on his lean frame like a blanket and judging by Taichi's crude snickering,he looked ridiculous. 

"Shut up Taichi. If you're going to make me wear it you can't laugh at me."Sasuke muttered 

Taichi had somehow been granted a gene that made him as solid and big as a boulder. Many times he had to go to the Uchiha medical division for injured hands and shins sparring with him. Sure a punch could do alot of damage but Taichi's deadly attacks were like being hit by a metal dumbbell doused in flames. He could only imagine the damage he did to his actual enemies. 

"Where is he?"Taichi muttered glancing impatiently at his watch "Can he open the fucking door its freezing out here.

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe he fell asleep again."

"If he's asleep I'm gonna-!"

The warehouse garage shrieked open a moment later, spilling artificial light out onto the black pavement revealing a lean figure standing in the doorway skillfully spinning a kunai on one finger. 

"You're gonna what Taichi?" A bored voice drawled "Burn me alive? Because I'm sure you've said that multiple times before and you've never gone through with it."

Sasuke watched as Shikamaru Nara sauntered from the warehouse entrance. Wearing his usual unprofessional grey sweatpants and hoodie combo, his brown hair tied in a tight ponytail leaving a spiky tuft mess atop his head. 

"...Ugh Those look like big ass crates."Shikamaru groaned

"Could you care to look a little more professional? Even jean's would've been fine."Sasuke asked shifting his weight to his right 

Shikamaru raised a brow, even the way he raised his brow was lazy, hardly even raising an inch above his half lidded eyes. 

"Professional for stocking?"Shikamaru questioned crawling into the back of the truck "Nah. Not until you cut that mullet."

Taichi broke out into a giggle. "Which is never."

"It's not a mullet!"Sasuke snapped 

"It is a mullet."Shikamaru sighed and pulled himself up on the back of the truck. "long hair in the back tapered from short hair in the front that's a mullet."

"Shut up!"

Sasuke had grown it out waist length since high school and he has no plans to cut it, no matter how much Shikamaru and Taichi teased him for it.

"You just don't have taste."Sasuke sniped 

"I will not be told I don't have taste by a person who insists that wearing blue, purple and black everyday and all day is the pinnacle of fashion "Shikamaru rummaged around the back of the truck snapping the buckles and counting the crates. "At least i've grown past looking like an edgy teen."

"You are not going to tell me off when you look like you just rolled out of bed every second of the day!"

"Didn't you say there were going to be eight crates…?"Shikamaru questioned ignoring Sasuke's quip"This is four."

Taichi placed an unlit cigarette in the corner of his mouth,"Stupid dealer didn't finish the new bullets requested. But he gave us some good ones instead. He's young so I let him off." 

He snapped in front the butt of the cigarette igniting a spark between his fingers. After a couple tries and a few muttered curses a plume of purple colored smoke rolled from his nostrils. 

"Tch! I'm going to get my ass chewed for this."Taichi growled "I don't even know why I'm sent on supply runs I always end up killing them shouldn't that tell them something?"

Taichi and Shikamaru started to unload the bullet crates onto a red metal trolley. Sasuke stood off to the side, his arms crossed tightly against his chest trying to ignore the cloud of smoke wafting into his face every few seconds.

At one point Sasuke caught the scent, his nose scrunched and he swatted at the polluted air around him. "Can you not blow it in my face?"

"Oh suck it up Sasuke, it doesn't smell that bad."

It wasn't that it smelled bad but more so that it was the same exact brand his father used to use. It reminded him of the countless hours he spent in his study with itachi, his tiny chubby fingers pointing at words he couldn't pronounce in hopes that itachi could. 

He wasn't going to admit all of that to Taichi so he decided to go with it. "I don't care what you think doesn't smell bad. I don't want it in my face because I think it smells awful."

Shikamaru sighed. "Can you guys not argue its bothersome."

"Tell that to Sasuke acting like he's going to die from a little smoke."

Sasuke's pointed scowl in response did nothing but make Taichi smirk and turn to follow behind Shikamaru into the warehouse. 

When he didn't immediately tag along Shikamaru turned around. "Come on, these bullets won't sort themselves."

Sasuke grumbled a few choice words about Taichi under his breath. Sticking cold hands in his jacket pockets he followed behind them into the cavernous slightly warm warehouse.

A myriad of magically charged knives, swords and guns sat on the metal shelves on the walls locked behind a sliding metal grate. Only certain people held the keys but that didn't stop Sasuke. He resorted to stealing them from one of the more lax guards to practice his weapon handling when no one was around. He's mastered most weapons but perfecting his aim with a gun was something he tirelessly trained till this day. 

"Do you know about that Jinchuriki boy?" Taichi asks to no one in particular "The one in the Uzumaki family?"

At the simple mention of the boy an immediate visceral reaction to strangle something jumped his bones. He feigned disinterest when Shikamaru tossed a side eye back at him, training his attention elsewhere to drown out the conversation of the idiot blonde that plagued his childhood.

"Naruto? Yeah, we used to go to middle school together we talked a lot actually."Shikamaru shrugged "Despite Sasuke's assholery towards him."

Sasuke didn't entertain his jab and slowed his pace to distance himself from them both. Another one of Shikamaru's short peripheral glances fell on him. 

_What does he want from me?_ _To say sorry? To feel bad for him? Ridiculous._

He scoffed and crossed his arms, lifted his chin and shot him an unsympathetic smirk in response. 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and focused his gaze elsewhere. 

Sasuke knows Naruto was one of Shikamaru's closest friends aside from Choji and Ino. They palled around constantly in middle and highschool, Naruto parading around as their leader loudly spouting whatever idiotic ramblings came from his thick skull.

"He had those claw marks on his face, like little whiskers. He has the nine tailed beast in him. When the little bitch was born I remember the whole Uzumaki crew touting their special child."Taichi retold with a cold grin " Although you were too young to remember it."

"Yeah"Shikamru replied blandly "What about him?"

They filed inside a small elevator that took them up to the second floor. This floor was much wider and it's where they kept every type of ammunition available. The bullets were always filled,counted, put up and marked for use, Sasuke had always found the process therapeutic, Shikamaru didn't mind but he knew Taichi despised it.

"We're going to be up all fucking night counting these bullets."Taichi sighed "Sasuke can't you-"

"No." Sasuke said firmly"Last time I used sharingan to do petty work like this my eyes were red and sore for five days."

Shikamaru chuckled and took out empty cardboard bullet cases out from a supply shelf "it isn't that bad, all you have to do is count. Mark and place it in the metal trunk. It's simple. If I can do it you can."

Taichi dramatically dropped to the floor and snatched a cardboard case from the pile Shikamaru had put in front of them. 

"Alright, alright, then let's fucking get to it, we don't have all day."

Sasuke pried open the wooden crate, the sea of shiny silver capsules were piled inside letting off tiny sparks of blue light. He sat back on a metal folding chair and started placing the capsules in the boxes.

"Anyway,"Taichi shoved his hand unceremoniously into the mass of bullets "That boy apparently lost his shit the other day and destroyed a big chunk of a forest. Almost half of it."

As hard as it was hard to shock Shikamaru this information surely did the trick. It caused his eyebrows to shoot up across his forehead, his lips fell apart as he slowly set a finished casing down into the trunk. Sasuke wasn't any better. His eyes fell on Taichi, unblinking but he tore them quickly away when his cousins eyes nearly met his face.

"Half a forest?"Shikamaru hissed 

A twinge of unease in stirred deep in the pit of his stomach. 

_'Half a forest._ ' He mused inwardly ' _how?'_

Sasuke settled himself down with thumbing a bullet in his hands, glancing at Taichi who had an amused wide frog like smile. 

"People don't know what pissed him off, The Uzumaki's are keeping that shit tight lipped."

The Uzumaki's were not in good relations with Uchiha's and never really have been. It was a fact that everyone in the underground knew so hearing that one person took out half a forest made him worry for any war that may break out between them in the future. If this was going to hurt them in the long run Sasuke sourly decided he was just going to have to let his intense need for self-preservation to overwhelm his petty need to appear uninterested. 

"Were there any witnesses?"Sasuke questioned aloud finishing his fourth casing "Surely if he destroyed half a forest people would notice."

Taichi took a few silent puffs of his cigarette as his eyes darted to the right and narrowed. "Well… it was the forest by the elementary school. Some teachers staying late at night would have saw it, but the Uzumaki's have probably bribed or threatened them by now. So not really."

"How long ago was it?"Shikamaru asked

"Like five weeks ago, I didn't even get word of it until I overheard a police officer talking about the damage from it…."

It immediately struck him as odd, the Uzumaki's were known for their brazen outward rambunctious dealings, they always leave a trail, whether it be their swirl symbol or mass destruction. 

_Did they assign people to clean it up? Or did they leave it? Was the destruction intentional? Did he really lose it? Why so close to the elementary school?_

Sasuke pinched his chin debating which of his many questions was the more important. After a prolonged silence let himself go back to work.

"The Uzumaki's normally don't cover up...something is happening…"Sasuke murmured 

"Or happened."Shikamaru grimly added 

They sat in quiet for a few moments, only the high pitched tinkle of bullets echoed off the cavernous walls of the warehouse.

"Did you know Yuto got caught swimming in the fountain?"Taichi randomly mused 

Shikamaru burst out in laughter, loosening the tension from the previous conversation. They both went into an animated spiel about the family clown that was Yuto. At the signs of Taichi wanting to change topic, Sasuke found his hands falling back into a rhythm. His presence in the conversation faded with only short hums of acknowledgment or small quips about Yuto's lack of intelligence. The sight of the bullets he held sliding uniformly into their cases distracted him from the twisting feeling in his gut. He knew something was off, but he didn't want to pick at the unnerving thoughts anymore. He decided to lose himself to the repetitive patient process at hand.

・・・・🍥・・・・🍅・・・・

As Taichi predicted, it had taken them all night to store the bullets for use. By the time Sasuke reached his house and changed into something more comfortable, a new day was blooming on the horizon. He abandoned the comfort of his bed for the roof on his house to watch the appearance of what he deemed everyone took for granted. 

The sun. 

It's indiscriminate brilliant rays would shine on anyone, and grace even the most dastardly of humans with its presence. The radiant light bathed the tops of the houses and the streets below in golden yellow, orange and red hues. As the sun rose higher, warmth swept his body in comforting waves. When he was younger, he liked to think the sun was protecting him against the cold mornings, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders and caressing his cheek in attempt to soothe the chill. 

Sasuke gave way to a quiet yawn, his lids starting to close on their own as he rolled over on his side for a quick nap. 

His "quick" nap turned into a four hour slumber until someone's fast approaching footsteps startled him awake. Sasuke snatched the knife from his back pocket and flung himself up into a defensive stance. An uncomfortable cold pulsed behind his eye sockets his vision flickered to the source of the noise. 

Before him was a young girl, knelt in front of him with black light-weight armour. Many weapons were strapped around her small frame along with potions made especially to provide a hasty escape. The most notable of her weapons being two tanto's with the Uchiha fan symbol strapped on her forearms.

"I apologize for startling you Mr.Uchiha" Despite her round youthful looking face her voice was severe and taught "I have a message from the elders."

Sasuke shoved his knife back in his pocket and breathed out, crossing his arms. He deactivated his sharingan, looking down on her with his most stern expression.

_Shoulders back, stand tall, chin up._

He responded to his mother's cool calutive voice as if she were there. Sasuke rolled his shoulders back making himself appear as tall as possible even against a kneeling messenger.

"Speak."Sasuke demanded his voice octaves deeper than necessary.

"We have gotten word that both the Uzumaki family boss and her husband have been slain." 

He tensed, his fingers digging into his forearms as his chest got uncomfortably tight with memories of his own parents lying in their beds, their throats coated in dry crusty brown blood.

"How was it done?" Sasuke asked trying to keep his brave facade in tact longer. Yet his body betrayed him and started trembling 

A pause over took the girl, her head tucked down into her chest. 

"Both sliced horizontally ...at the neck."


	2. You're Not Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto deals with his emotions from the funeral, and goes on a misson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter is a bit long, all chapters will not be this long but I couldn't see myself breaking anything up in this chapter. 
> 
> ALSO,
> 
> TW/ Death  
> TW/ Explicit Mentions of blood, gore  
> TW/ Anxiety attack  
> TW/ Unhealthy coping mechanisms  
> TW/ Emotional detachment 
> 
> Please be mindful of these warnings while reading this.
> 
> ALSO PLEASE READ THE END NOTES IT IS IMPORTANT YOU WILL BE CONFUSED IN AN UPCOMING CHAPTER IF YOU DONT

Death was rampant in Naruto’s life.

In a family that works around the laws he was taught from tender ages that it was inevitable and unavoidable. Loss was always a constant moving shadow looming over and around him snatching people from his life at inopportune times.

As he grew older, the ones distant from him fell and he mourned appropriately, even when his uncle on his dad’s side succumbed to death’s clutches; he lived through it. He survived his aunt’s death who died a few days later after her husband. Even some of his work partners’ deaths were like a thin veil over his shoulders before he shrugged it off and moved on. 

His classmates who were not familiar with the ways of underground Konoha thought it odd he went to funerals almost every other week and found it even more precarious that he bounced back with his head held high and his smile just as brilliant as when he left. Most thought him strong and resilient, others found it disturbing and distanced themselves, but it didn't phase him, especially after a funeral where he was the most detached from his surroundings.

His classmates were wrong, he wasn't strong or heartless, he did hurt, he felt the pain heavily. 

Probably more than everyone else around him. 

Naruto could feel, hear, smell and taste an individual’s magical core. A rare hereditary ability in the Uzumaki family that he abhorred and kept secret from his closest friends and family. Only his mother and father knew about it. 

Since the raw magic stored inside the core was in tune with one's emotions, he physically fell ill when too many people were grieving around him. Normally he could subdue the ability at whim but it got to be overwhelming when there were more than five or four people feeling similar emotions at the same time. They all connected and amplified each other overrunning his senses all at once. He vehemently detested funerals and any gathering where the main goal was to feel any type of negative or bittersweet emotion. When he was younger he actually straight up refused to go to such events. 

But he knew that type of avoidance wouldn't last.

So he learned to detach himself.

After many years of perfecting his way of getting over loss this was his preferred method. When he was in public he pushed those sour emotions away from his mind and to the pits of his stomach like acid bile. When he went to funerals he would recite magical rune patterns to shift his attention away from those hurting around him. Whenever more than four of his friends around him started shedding tears and venting all their frustrations, he would make a best effort to comfort them but made sure to leave his own emotional response off to a little corner of his mind only giving them the positive affirmation they needed. 

Despite all of this he still wore most of his emotions on his sleeves, his anger, his excitement, his happiness and his pride were always on display.

The only exception being his sadness. 

So when his parents died five weeks ago, he impulsively threw all of his emotions of grief in a tightly wrapped box.He walked around like a highly intelligent corpse for those first two days, he acted strong and even smiled and joked trying to get his friends to not hurt or feel pain.

instead of making them happy, his behavior caused a lot of his close friends and family to become terribly worried. He understood why they tried to speak to him about his parents, why they wanted to pry those emotions from that box he so securely wrapped up. But he fought to keep it closed, even when some started to take his jubilant mood for strength and loaded him with their stories of grief he comforted them and assured he felt the same pain that same sense of loss.

The day of the funeral that box splintered and cracked.Seeing his parents laying in their caskets with stasis spells made to make them look like they were simply in a slumber ripped some of the threads holding his emotions in place. 

The funeral went on and he kept his eyes away from the caskets, away from his crying relatives. Instead he pinned them intently to the worn wooden floor of the temple. 

When he had given his speech–his final ode to his parents–his box was rumbling, shaking and calling to something horribly dangerous in the depths of his soul. But he was determined. Naruto pushed on, making a valiant effort to give his parents the send off they rightfully deserved.

The lowering of the caskets into the ground was supposed to quell and satisfy the emotions within him now that the bodies were away from his sight.

But it didn't. 

Instead the emotions had linked to something highly volatile in order to escape and the moment he tasted the jarring bitterness in the back of his throat; He fled. 

Naruto had ruined a couple graves on his haphazard way to distance himself but he was more concerned with keeping everyone away from him, to keep them safe.

His relatives and friends shouted after him but it was muffled under the unsettling squealing sound of his magic being swallowed by a darker more repugnant energy he was– at that moment–too emotionally weak to fight. 

For an instant, his limbs were weightless, time around him stopped and silence was a dead uncomfortable weight on his ear drums. 

Then came the screeching.

The horrifying noise, sounding like a high pitched inhuman wail of a beast, tore from his own throat as his seals ripped from his core. It was painful on his vocal chords, but it was nothing compared to the searing ache that racked his bones and organs shifting to accommodate the sudden swell of magic in his body. 

It was hell. For those four minutes of consciousness he was in _hell._

Finally, his body couldn't take anymore and blacked out letting the monster inside of him destroy to its heart’s content. Taking out half of the forest and robbing every creature in those densely packed trees of life.

Four weeks since then, he’s given up his usual safe method of dealing with loss because it wasn’t so safe anymore. Naruto didn't want to hurt anyone. He was lucky his Aunt Chitose was coherent enough through her grief to erect her sealing chains around the forest to keep him from destroying anything further than the forest. Or worse, take someone's life. 

Instead of his usual show of being happy, he's been sitting in his dark room trying to process his loss and grief the normal way. It isn't pleasant, it's ugly and horrific. A constant churning of emotion that makes him sick physically and mentally. Every time he thinks he's getting better he gets a whiff of his parent’s leftover magic around the house or he stumbles upon a fond memory and he’s back to square one.

He hadn't been anywhere near his family since the funeral incident but their ambient magic that drifted around the house told him they were healing slowly, some were even close to acceptance and he wondered if this is how confused and left behind they felt when he was seemingly over his grief in minutes. It felt like his running away was finally catching up to him. If his emotional outburst was hell this was for sure his own fucked up purgatory.

He had decided today, for the first time in weeks, was going to be his clearest attempt to escape the clutches of said purgatory and the morning–to his surprise–had started off well enough with a pleasant walk around the gardens. 

The slight ache in his unused muscles seemed to dissipate, his lungs took kindly to the crisp fresh air and nothing felt more luxurious than sprawling out on the soft, pleasantly verdant grass of the lawn. 

Brilliant blue plumaged birds flew aimlessly in circles above him, his sensitive ears enjoyed the melodic chirping against the quiet rustling of leaves. His heart twinged, longing to be just as careless and free of emotional responsibilities as the birds were.

When the chilly gusts of fall wind started to freeze him through his jacket, he had started to head inside intending to sit in the comfort of his living room. Maybe to watch a movie or two, snuggle under a wool blanket with a cup of scalding cinnamon hot chocolate. 

His hopes of comfort and relaxation were dashed the moment he stepped inside. His aunt was in the foyer framing a picture of his deceased parents above the mantle where the rest of the previous bosses of the Uzumaki family were hung. His parents' gleaming smiles trapped behind a reflective glass, bordered in expensively ornate carved gold caused his lungs to ache and constrict painfully behind his ribs.

Next thing Naruto knew he was scrambling up the steps with his heartbeat clamoring in his ears. His socked feet sliding clumsily across the varnished floors, slamming shoulder first against walls whenever the momentum from turning sharp corners was too much to control.

Stumbling into the open door of his room he doused himself in darkness. It welcomed him like a cool comfort to his perilously panicked and fiery emotions. 

When the anxiety cooled he was left on the verge of tears feeling stupid that a picture rendered him a petrified scuttling mess. That a mere reminder had put him back to square one. Like...

_A coward._

The withering thought clipped Naruto before he could stop it and the beginnings of a stress headache thumped dully behind his eye sockets. 

His fingertips prickled with an unnatural heat. It spread the length of his arms and chest edging dangerously closer to a fever hot enough to give the sun competition. Gentle winds started to rustle his blankets and throw pillows across the room and that's when he caught on to exactly what was going on. 

Naruto turned on his side and snatched the last bit of his emergency stash of stabilizing potion from under his pillow. He despised using stabilizers, they too closely resembled bad alcohol in the way it went down, burning with a slight bitterness that clung sickly to the back of his throat. But it was necessary, he never goes anywhere without at least one. His magic was far too dependent on his emotions to walk as freely as the rest of Konoha's inhabitants.

The tiny sip left did very little to bring down his body temperature, but what it did do was enough to stop his magic from blowing the entire house down. Dropping onto his back, he threw the potion bottle into darkness after getting what he could out of it.

Whatever it hit caused the bottle to shatter on impact and he couldn't be bothered to care. His mind was far too occupied with the morose thought that everyone seemed to be moving on without him. Once the funeral had been handled no one so much as winced at hearing his parents' names, they'd even gather around the fireplace and talk about them in memoriam like they had been dead for years. Needless to say he was out of the room and far from the conversation whenever they began these talks and it made him feel alone. It didn't help that everyone in the house seemed to avoid him like he had caught something highly contagious. 

_'So much for being the security blanket.'_ He derisively chided

He couldn't help but feel bitter. He recounted the multiple times his friends and family would describe his aura similar to a blanket, warm and heavy, a bit suffocating yet comforting. In their worst times he'd be giving them pep talks, riling them up with his own passion to get them through their slump. 

_Where are they now?_

He let these dangerous emotions fester until guilt tore through him like a jagged knife.

He did everything to keep the people around him happy and he often felt happy doing it. They owed him nothing for giving his help, everyone had their own lives to worry about. So why did he feel bitter about it? Was it normal to feel like this? Was he an awful person? Happiness wasn't a monetary transaction. Support isn't either so why did he feel like this. It ate him up inside. He wanted these greasy foul emotions to stop.

"I'm just bitter because I'm alone right now...just because I'm being difficult doesn't mean they have to be...they weren't their parents _._ " Naruto murmured to himself, his voice slightly cracked. He turned on his side and stared into the pitch black of his room, his fingers worrying a loose thread on his comforter 

"That's it…That's it. Leave it alone. Please."

He shook his head, willing the negative thoughts to go away, but they kept closing in on him clinging onto him like a second skin. 

_Your friends are scared of you._

_They only hang around you out of fear of what the Uzumaki's would do to them_. 

_You're nothing but a nuisance to them and that's why they now avoid you because your parents aren't there to threaten them if they did._

With each passing agonizing thought the voices grew in volume. Told him he was horrible for thinking about his friends that way. How ugly it was for him to doubt their generosity. 

One voice was resoundingly louder than the others. 

_They're scared of you because of that ugly beast inside of you._ _Do you ever stop to think about that? Why do you always think about yourself?_

Naruto uncomfortably shifted in his bed to face what would be his wall in the pitch black room and grimaced. Despite the calming stupor his friends said they felt in his presence, he was always wary of the underlying viciousness that hung eerily beneath its blissful warmth.

Whenever his emotions fell from his control a need for blood itched his canines. The monster inside of him promised all of his feelings would be numbed and forgotten, in turn the beast took control of him to indulge its voracious desire for carnage. Just like at the funeral he fell unconscious before he went on a full rampage, but it still felt responsible for everything he did while he was under that heavy sleep.

In his very worst nights he was tempted to allow it but most times he felt repulsed by the offer, thinking it would be disgustingly selfish to let people befall serious injury or flat out die because his need to run away from his own feelings were stronger than his morals.

Where he stood right now he wasn't sure. The beast's devilish proposition was laid out for him now. 

Whenever the monster spoke to him it was never in words, but actions. His emotions dulled, an ambiguous calm washed over him and took away his anguish, grief, and guilt. Even as his body temperature rose into what he assumed to be dangerous levels, the steady beat of his heart acted like foot falls headed straight for his assured destruction. 

_Selfish. How selfish am I?_

He closed his eyes and let himself drown in the inky black behind his lids. He was swarmed with memories, one's that used to be sweetly engraved into his heart now tormented him and picked at his five week old wounds.

 _Five weeks_. 

It has been a full month since he last saw those who had given him life alive and now he wondered if his own meaning. 

All of his pain smoothed under an unnaturally detached sense of peace. He could run away right now, be indulgent in his own fake bliss until he woke up–

_Coward! You're a coward. You're running? You're going to run and let that beast tear more people away from you!_

His eyes snapped open, but it was as if his lids were transparent. Darkness still stretched on for as far as he could see.

A sound akin of rushing wind thundered in his eardrums alerting him of what he had done. He could hear paper rustling, objects smacking against the walls, even his bed was making an awful creaking sound that he could only assume was about to shatter under the pressure of his magic.

"No! I take it back! I take it-! Go away!" He shouted in horror, he couldn't hear himself but his throat hurt all the same. 

The wind only grew violently stronger; he tried again this time warring his own magic against the beasts to suppress it the best he could. He screeched with everything he had, his voice shrill against the wind cutting at his skin.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" 

The monster sharply rescinded its power, it stole the breath from his lungs and had him choking up something warm and metallic tasting. He panicked and wiped it away with the back of his sweater and tried to get a hold of his erratic breathing.

His limbs that once felt weightless sunk him deep into his mattress, like someone had tied chains to his ankles and threw him into the ocean. 

The emotions that ebbed away under his false serenity struck him all at once. One of which had filled him with an inescapable amount of guilt.

He was disgusted with himself. 

_How could I allow that? How could I have accepted that?_

A shudder tore through his body as heat took to his face. He hid under his blankets and a feeble attempt at fighting a sob caused a whimper to fall from his lips. 

_I'm selfish._

He sniffled letting his lids flutter shut this time letting out a choked cry. The once empty darkness seemed to close in on him, botching his sense of place and time. Naruto found himself unable to breathe, each deep inhale he took was cut off by the tightness in his throat.

He wanted the emotions gone again, he wanted to escape.

_Selfish._

The more he tried to frantically run from reality the further he plunged into reliving his own hell. The shriek of the maid, the sound of his own pounding footsteps, and the _blood._ Fresh and viscous, spilling out the expertly carved necks of his parents. He had run away, he remembered his chest heaving with the pained exhaustion of his lungs.

_Coward._

He hated himself for running. He hated himself for accepting the monsters offer and he hated himself for his selfishness. His eyes screwed shut so tight that he might've busted a vessel.

_Coward._

Naruto felt as if he might throw up any minute, nausea pushed and pulled at him in waves, cold sweat beaded in a thin layer on his skin. The back of his throat tastes acrid when he swallows, he's going to–

' _Breathe, there's a lamp next to you, Where are you?'_

The voice was low and severe but oddly comforting, he couldn't pin it to a face. Naruto reached next to him and turned on the lamp situated on his desk, the darkness shrunk away enough to reveal a small part of his room.

It repeated its question, it's tone more pressing than the last time it spoke.

_'where are you?'_

"My room." Naruto shook his head, dragging his hands down across his face, "in my room." 

_'Are you in danger?'_

"No"

_'Check your surroundings.'_

He headed the voice's directions, looking around his dimly lit room he noted small things like his fox sculpture, his piles of unwashed clothes, discarded heat up meals, emptied coffee bottles, his chipped door frame, it grounded him back to his present.

_'What time is it?'_

"The time?"He asks aloud

The voice didn't respond, it ceased to answer him when he became conscious of it. An uncomfortable squeeze in his throat was accompanied by his eyes beginning to puff.

He clenched his teeth and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fuck. Fucking hell."

Naruto inhaled deeply, let it out through his nose and placed his hands at his knees then repeated the process. 

It was a meditative technique to center magic back down to its core then allowing for it to spread back out. It warmed the body, and served as a weak stabilizer without having to use the much stronger potion, the problem was it took time and a level head. One he normally didn't have caught up in his intense emotions.

Sakura had instructed him of the technique when he was younger and more susceptible to the urges the animal inside him wanted. He remembered how terrified he was when he lost control one day. Growling and nashing his teeth at a bigot who called him all sorts of names. 

He thought she'd abandon him seeing what she saw but instead she had sat there with him, a sweet smile graced her lips, her pink brows slightly furrowed in worry. She sat rubbing tiny circles between his shoulder blades, telling him he was going to be alright, that nothing would hurt him. 

He never thanked her for calming him down and it wore on his conscious already saddled with guilt.

_Not now._

He took a few more minutes to relax himself in silence until the sound of his ragged breathing smoothed out. 

Once all the tension drained from his muscles and he was adequately calm, he grabbed his tablet from the foot of the bed and scrolled through the odd jobs that were posted on a forum board for the Uzumaki's.

He needed to get out of the house, not just out of his room, not just within the fences of the Uzumaki household. Out. where any reminder of his parents wouldn't plague him. 

He was reading through an intriguing job to protect an old man's house from a grumpy witch when there was a light knock at his door. He wasn't even able to get out of bed before Sakura walked and flicked the lights on. 

Naruto hissed at the sudden stream of brightness"Can you give me a warning? Your going to burn my fucking eyes."

"Ok you Anguil" Sakura scoffed 

"That's offensive to real Anguil's ."Naruto quipped feeling strangely defensive of the gangly, sharp toothed people. 

They were always extremely nice to him, giving him many of their protection charms which were woven with the strands of their hair. Sometimes he'd come home with bunches of them stuffed in his pockets as he felt it would be highly rude to refuse them.

"I learned that they don't even like the dark."He lifted his chin and crossed his arms as he flexed his conversational knowledge. "So many people like to stereotype them I didn't take you for being one of them."

"Stereotype? what are you talking about Naruto! I treat at least ten of them a day, they all have a definite gene that gives them light sensitivity," She scorned, a playful smile tugged at her lips. "But I'm beginning to think their physical aversion to light is not as bad as yours." 

He threw her a bite-less glare as she crossed the room towards him. She was dressed primly in a vermillion long sleeved shirt and white slacks. Naruto figured she might've just gotten her lunch break, she still wore her ankle length lab coat and her stethoscope laid draped around her neck. 

"Why are you always sitting in the dark anyway?" Sakura asked sitting at his desk, she lifted her foot to dislodge a lollipop that had stuck to the bottom of her shoe and grimaced, throwing the sticky mess in the bin beside her."Also, what's with this junk? Karin told me your aura went unstable for a moment. Have you been doing what I told you to do? Meditating? Eating? Sleeping?" 

He hadn't. At least not regularly since the funeral incident. 

Naruto nervously twisted a blonde lock of hair around his fingers. "Sometimes..."

The look that she donned after the lie he told was so recognizable he winced. That tight lipped scowl she always had when he did something reckless and neglected the after care to his body, when she patched him up after a rough misson, when at his bedside if he fell any type of ill. If anyone could pick out that Naruto was lying, especially about his health, Sakura Haruno would be the one to pick up on it immediately.

"Ok! but I did take a walk this morning! It isn't _exactly_ what you said to do but meditation isn't that different from it right?" 

Sakura's mint green eyes narrowed at him."Naruto You look like you've been dragged to hell and back what exactly happened during a walk that....–Is that blood!"

Before Naruto could hide his sleeve her hand had seized his wrist. Sakura rubbed a thumb across the crusted over stain and frowned. "Naruto-"

Whatever she was going to say he didn't want to hear it.

"I'm not lying! I mean it!" He exclaimed "I really _was_ walking,I was walking and then I came in and saw-"

His next sentence caught in his throat. The image of his parents next to the other deceased heads of the family snagged angrily at his fresh breakdown just minutes earlier. His next words were uneven in tone.

"I'm sure the instability was because...well...the living room...."

Naruto knew she had to have seen them being framed on the way up to his room. Sakura's previous accusive demeanor melted away and her eyes darted to the ground. Although she was shorter than him she always exuded an air that made her feel tall, but right now her form was slouched and drained from its energy.

Her hands grasped at her shoulders. "I suggested it was too early for that but your aunt insisted that they be honored...just like the previous ones."

Another wave of dread tightened Naruto's chest but feeling Sakura's weight push on his shoulder calmed the surge of unease. She placed her hand gently on the middle of his back. A pause, the silence was deafening, he wanted to say something, _anything_.

"I-I just" he begins "I just feel everyone is moving on, but I can't…like I'm stuck reliving the same night, over and over...its just a fucking hell. My own hell."

He felt her hand twitch on his back, Naruto didn't look at her, he wasn't sure if it was because he was afraid to let Sakura see his face or that he was afraid to see hers. Either way he stayed looking at the ground, his fingers picking at the skin around his nails. 

"Naruto you're not the only one hurting, we are all grieving in different ways...but you can still confide in us."She said her normally strong tone dulled under a blanket of solemn reflection "Everyone loved Mr.Minato and Mrs.Kushina. we want to remember them just as much as you do. You're not alone, you are _never_ alone."

The heavy fog that plagued his mind thinned, it wasn't by much, but enough for him to see a glimmer of hope. He could tell by the way Sakura smiled at him she could tell his worries eased a smidgen. 

She got to her feet quickly as the glass pin enchanted to work as something similar to a pager colored red and began to beep. The tender moment was over and she stood tall once again. Sakura had many patients to tend to and the medical division wouldn't run itself. 

"We will find who did this."She opened the door to leave but lingered for a moment,"They won't get away with it."

In response, Naruto nodded and straightened up on his bed, feeling a little put together for the first time in what felt like ages. "Those cowardly bastards don't know what's coming for them. Messing with the Uzumaki's like this. They definitely have a death wish."

He willed the new anger swelling in his chest to change into something that could push him forward in avenging his parents. Although he couldn't be the boss of the family just yet, he was going to be of great use until then. He couldn't falter now. He was going to find whoever killed his parents, and pay it back to them ten fold.

・・・・🍥・・・・🍅・・・・

After Sakura had left his room, Naruto managed to find a simple escort job from the forum that fortunately would take him only an hour or two to complete. He could have the rest of his day to himself, maybe shop for some clothes, eat at a cafe, something that would allow him to relax-

 _And forget about my parents_. 

The thought had pained him but luckily the taxi came to a stop giving him no time to dwell on it. He tipped the driver and stepped out into the bustling streets of Konoha city.

Large, sleek office buildings towered over each side of busy roads trafficked with halted hover cars and illegally parked Levi-bikes. Smaller stores that sold potions, serums and synthetic magic items were squished in between the sky scrappers, many of them owned by mages who offered new products in silly stereotypical wizard costumes. He passed by Restaurants that leaked savory flavors with people seated under veranda's which jut out awkwardly into the sidewalk. 

He always liked going into the city for jobs requested of the Uzumaki's. The multiple alley ways provided great cover and everyone was too busy getting to their destinations to spare him a passing glance. Despite his hair being a hassle when it came to missions requiring stealth, he found himself blending in with the multitude of oddities amongst the crowd of people that lived in Konoha. Half animal people, people with horns, girls with five arms and men with plants sticking out of their heads. There was no such thing as odd in this mismatched town.

Konoha was one of the few cities that accepted people that were not human. He greatly appreciated that in his time in the school system, being a jinchuuriki was celebrated and people were drawn to his uniqueness and charming enthusiasm.

Except for a few. 

A certain raven haired asshole came to mind causing his mood to dampen at once, like water doused on a roaring fire. 

Sasuke Uchiha was one of the most stuck up, head up ass, sons of bitches Naruto has ever come to know. All five years of his education at Konoha Academy were half spent spitting insults at the boy who spat back in agitating distantly cold tones. 

The cockroach embarrassed him in front of whole classes and whenever he even had a semblance of confidence in something he thought he was good at, Sasuke one upped him with no remorse. Even giving him that shit eating smirk when he felt particularly good about ruining his day. 

They would start fights in the courtyard so intense that the teachers would have to quarantine off the yard for weeks because the dangerous levels of magic they hurled at each other were still present in the air. 

As much as he hated the bitch, he didn't want to brood over the memories too much and get worked up over something long passed. Naruto wouldn't dare give Sasuke, knowingly or unknowingly, the joy of ruining even a second of his life after graduation.

Naruto took a shortcut through an alleyway that led him out west of Konoha city. The west side of Konoha was a fairly peaceful part of town where hardly anything happened, the structures were more mundane and suburban looking than the heart of the city. It's where most humans lived, more policemen were stationed but since nothing ever happened they lazed around in their cars, not paying a lick of attention to their areas of patrol. Which is why many crime syndicates came to this part of town to do business. 

In the guise of a nice evening walk, conversations of assassination and drug dealing would be exchanged in great detail. A police officer who was used to calm wouldn't care to listen hard enough and if they did why would they want to disrupt peace? Especially if a couple hundred dollars were slid their way.

When he arrived at his destination he didn't expect to be in front of the Hyuga estate. Its large wooden doors and red protective magic infused fence covered up any view of activity inside. 

The Hyuga's were their allies, but he always had his suspicions they were only their allies because the Uchiha's were very strict about their alliances. If the Uchiha's at any point dropped hints at a possible deal, the Hyuga family would bend over backwards to earn it. Not to mention they were almost as cocky and prideful as the Uchiha's and it left a bad taste in his mouth. 

He reached out to ring the massive door knocker but to his horror the doors begun to swing open at a startlingly fast rate

"Wait!"Naruto shouted, he staggered back to get out of the dangerous path of the large red doors. "I'm on the other side of the–!"

The cumulus of displaced air threw him off his feet causing him to tumble painfully into the white walls parallel to the Hyuga estate. Luckily before hitting the solid concrete he cast a softening charm on his body or else he would've had at the least a concussion. 

Shoving himself off the pavement he shouted, "Fucking hell! Do you intend to break my damn neck–"

But upon laying eyes on Hinata Hyuga standing between the large gates of the estate his next words fell to a whisper, eventually cutting off completely when he snapped his jaw shut.

His ex-classmate and friend wore a grey cable knit sweater, a long black skirt that grazed the tips of white tennis shoes hidden underneath and a pastel purple scarf. Her mass of dark blue hair was tied in a ponytail with a few purple pins that matched perfectly with the lavender color of her pupiless eyes. A trait that all Hyuga's possessed. 

He was told by his parents it was because they had no souls, it was meant as a joke but he often found himself wondering if it was true at times.

These were one of those times.

Hinata smiled walking towards him with a knife loosely gripped in her right hand. "Ah! Sorry! I opened the doors thinking it was an enemy. Your magical signature has changed, I didn't recognize that it was you on the other side."

He furrowed his brows, "My magical signature has changed?" 

Hinata nodded. "The formation of the magic is different, instead of the wild jagged shards it used to be...it's more…wispy...like a cloud. Like Shika's signature. Have you changed your intent?" 

"No…I don't think so?"

While Naruto's ability to sense magical cores was profficent, he could not distinguish or see magical signatures. Signatures are the leftover magic pulled from the raw magic stored in the core. The residue differentiates depending on the method and intent used to draw and expel the magic. A curse, a hex and a charm could all have different looking signatures even if it came from the same person because it has molded and transformed in different ways from the raw magic it previously was. Because of this, it is near impossible to connect a signature to a core.

The ability to see Magical signatures isn't common but it also isn't as rare as his magical core ability. People like Hinata were about twenty five percent of Konoha, in fact the majority of the Hyuga family can see magical signatures as they need it to decipher the signature in order to use their trademark magic blocking ability. Out of all of his friends only Neji, Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru and Sakura could see signatures. Yet he only knew one person able to do the near impossible and track them back to the raw magical core it came from, and she was one of the three alive in the entire world able to do it. 

His cousin Karin.

This is where his confusion stemmed from. Surely Karin would've said something about it. She's so sensitive and precise when it comes to magical signatures that she would've known if his intent changed immediately. He would ask her about it later.

With Hinata's odd comment swept to the back of his mind, he became more aware of the type of knife his dear friend was holding.

"Oh," Naruto's eyes didn't leave the weapon "is that why you have a Selk horn knife?"

Selk's were wild temperamental animals that had four highly poisonous horns stuck down their backs and one on their heads. They were shaped similar to an equine but had rough scaly black skin that was nearly impenetrable to magic. It's why the beasts were always stunned with heavy doses of sedative powders thrown in their direction when hunting them. Getting physically close to a Selk is asking for a death wish.

How Hinata acquired and enchanted the poisonous horn to not harm her he didn't know and hardly wanted to know.

"No, I keep a knife on me at all times." 

"You still do that? Even after the...incident you had in third year?"

Hinata tipped her head slightly to the side. "Incident?"

"The Mr.Jiraiya incident…"

She frowned but Naruto saw no remorse in her features. If anything she was frowning at the mention of Jiraiya. "Ah that...I felt so bad about it I even took a few days from school " 

_You mean suspension?_ Naruto caught himself thinking but quickly decided against saying it aloud. 

He couldn't blame her for not feeling bad, the man was a creep and seeing him turn a corner too fast behind you is a more than valid reason to take physical precautions. Last he's heard he's serving two years behind bars and Naruto had made very little effort to find out why. Something about insurance fraud.

An odd relief washed over him when Hinata finally placed the weapon back into a satchel slung around her waist. "He's recovered fine from what I've heard, Tsunade is a good Healer."

"Yes she's an exceptional doctor." 

A smooth stern voice alerted Naruto to Neji Hyuga who approached behind her, his arms crossed, his gaze was as calm and collected as he remembered.

"He only ended up with seventeen stitches and a leave of absence. We all know he deserved worse and _honestly_ Hinata, what do you need a knife for you have sealing magic."

"We couldn't use unauthorized magic on school grounds, remember?"

Unlike Hinata Neji had brunette hair tied loosely with a ribbon at the base of his back. In highschool he'd sport browns and muted yellows and it clearly hadn't changed. He wore a russet colored turtleneck and simple black pants, all tied together with a saffron trench coat. 

Neji scoffed, "As if anyone listened to those rules, we have one of the two main offenders of breaking that particular rule right here."

Naruto chuckled. "Fuck the rules! That speedy cockroach instigated it every time."

"Speedy _what_?" Neji said, he looked mildly confused but he held an amused smile "Are you talking about Sasuke?"

"Well yeah _Obviously_."

Naruto grinned as Neji shook his head and made a huff that sounded satisfyingly similar to a small laugh. 

It was a mentally draining task to keep himself from remembering the mild crush he had on him in middle school. Mostly because his heart filled confession had been followed by Neji callously laughing at him leaving him highly embarrassed and mortified. He told himself over and over that he would never confess his feelings _ever_ again. 

He had failed that promise miserably. 

Many more crushes and confessions came after and all of them ended unrequited. Although the others turned him down far more gently than Neji that didn't stop his friends from pinning him as a hopeless romantic for the rest of his school days. It wasn't like he _tried_ to find people emotionally unavailable, he couldn't help the people he found attractive normally were emotionally retinent. 

Strong, smart, but reserved, Sakura had told him was his type.

He knew that type appealed to him because of his sensitivity to magical cores and normally people who were introverted tended to have stable, slow moving cores. Viewing Neji's own earthy yellow core swaying side to side as if in a gentle breeze was enough to slip him into an easy trance. 

It was just unfortunate he found that remotely appealing when he wore most of his heart on his sleeve and was chatty as all get out. 

_I really am going to be alone forever._ Naruto mulled inwardly

"Uh, Hello? Naruto?"Hinata said, a pale hand waved in front of him"Are you ok?

As he drew himself from his thoughts, he blinked rapidly before focusing on Neji who held a raised brow at him. "Are you going to come inside?"

Naruto parted his lips to reply but he was already turning back towards the entrance. Hinata motioned for him to follow after them. 

"Inside?"He asks for clarification."You want me to go inside?"

Hinata smiled. "Yes inside come on. You're the one we hired right? We will guide you." 

He hesitantly shuffled past the big wooden gates, tensing after hearing them shut and lock behind him. 

Naruto had never been inside the Hyuga estate. His father and mother normally took care of business and left him at home to tend to smaller missions. Sometimes Sakura would tell him about her visit when she had to go work with the Hyuga's, waxing on about how big the household was.

Yet, the stories she told did not do justice to what he saw as one of the most beautiful places he's been in. 

Multiple ornately decorated houses sat on both sides of a dark wooden planked path woven around the estate. He passed many gardens flushed with sweet smelling flowers of all kinds, sometimes his sensitive ears would catch the tail end of a conversation, or kids laughter spilling out from behind a bush. Smaller homes clung onto steep mountain sides and had stairs built into the cliffs winding down and out of view behind lush full trees at ground level. He could only gawk at everything, if Hinata and Neji noticed his goofy childish grin then they didn't comment. 

Further into the estate, they had walked across a bridge above a glittering pond with a species of willow tree draping its blue flowered vines over their path. Fish swam around and pecked at the water where a little girl was throwing food for them. 

He smiled when approaching her. "Can I help?"

The child looked up at him strangely, but emptied some feed into his hands anyway and sprinted to catch up with a group of kids at the end of the bridge. While he threw feed into the water Hinata settled beside him, her arms rested on the railing as she occasionally shared her knowledge of the animals scurrying about. 

"What about the trees?"Naruto asks "I've never seen willows like these before."

"Oh Neji knows about the trees!"Hinata said, excitement in every word. "He planted some of them with Gaara back in Highschool."

Neji rolled his eyes and sourly murmured something too quiet for him to hear, but eventually he gave in and answered the myriad questions Naruto had about the trees, he also happened to know a lot about the other type of greenery present and what ass kissing people gave them the saplings to grow them. 

While Neji was explaining a species of wild grown sugar cane, he crouched down on the bridge to observe a unique looking flower floating atop the pond's surface. 

He grinned at the closer inspection of its beauty, tiny flecks of gold sparked from its yellow tinged middle. It's slender white petals bloomed out from the center making the flower about the size of his palm. The mildly sweet perfume-like scent was like a balm to his delicate sense of smell. 

Spurts of sparkling magic started to emit from the flower causing it to dance and twirl closer towards him. The mere fascination he held towards the odd but beautiful plant enchanted him to edge nearer to the water.

He wanted to touch the petals.

Scuffling past the railing, he gripped one spindle in his hand for support to lean over the pond. Unfortunately his reach still wasn't long enough to touch it. Naruto started to splash in the water to coax the flower his way. His fingertips managed to graze a petal.

"Come on just a little-" 

_Crack!_

He felt his heart fall out of his ass with fear.

The spindle had snapped under his weight, his ankle twisted underneath him and sent him flying towards the water. It all happened so quickly, he couldn't even yell or brace for impact. 

Before he could get a face full of pond rocks, his shirt collar strangled him, a strong force dragged his body from the railing and threw him back onto the bridge.

His addled brain struggled to process words or even coherent thoughts until the sound of Hinata's soft laughter pulled him from his daze. 

"Why would you reach for a Mortemise flower? How in the world have you survived this long!" Neji hissed in a dangerous tone, after only getting a confused look as a reply he sighed and released the back of Naruto's sweater."Those flowers exist to kill people, they lure you in with their beauty and when you fall in they tangle you in their roots and drown you. They suck the magic from your being and feed off your dead corpse. Luckily this water is shallow and their roots aren't that long, the most you would have suffered is being drenched."

"Why do you have flowers like that in a pond!"Naruto yelled, thoroughly horrified "I almost died!"

"I told you the waters were too shallow, you didn't almost die." Neji said, but Naruto ignored him.

"That doesn't answer why you have man eating flowers in your backyard!"

"Because they're pretty."Hinata replied, she reached down to pet the flowers petals, weirdly the flower had settled closer to the bridge as if leaning into her touch "I asked for them back in highschool when I saw then at another household, my father agreed since he could plant some in the deeper parts of the pond for protection against intruders."

Naruto watched intently as Hinata sent the man eating flower back towards the center of the pond with a gentle nudge of her fingers.

"Come on, we've lollygagged enough" Neji said "We need to brief you on your escort mission, Injunie should be there now."

"Injunie?" Naruto dusted himself off and followed behind them "is that who put the job on the forum?"

"Yes."Hinata replied "He's the one who manages and exports our protection charms. Normally we have our own specialized guards to make sure our a thousand units worth of merchandise gets to where it needs to go but they're all off on a job my father sent them on."

"Why not leave some behind?"

"Exactly,"Neji complained, "I _told_ him it was foolish, but he argued with me saying that it was an important mission and that required the utmost security. So as of right now we are hiring people to do it until they come back."

The bridge led out to a sparse forest beginning to show the effects of fall, some of the leaves were beginning to turn red and some had already crisped up and fallen off. It reminded him of the nature paths he took in Konoha city national park when he was younger. 

A fonder memory of his mother and father made its way to the forefront of his mind. Both of them sat on a red and white checkered cloth filled with plates of his favorite foods. He couldn't remember who said what, their voices all melted in a vague muffled chatter but it all made his chest tighten the same.

"Naruto are you ok?"Hinata asked 

His surroundings came back to him in a watery blur and in an startling realization he swiped his fingers at the tears gathering at the corner of his eye. Beginning to push the sad emotions into the box in his mind he faltered, reminding himself of the danger he caused last time he did such a thing. Frustration bubbled up and he latched onto that instead.

"Yeah I'm fine." Naruto grit his teeth bearing the foreign amalgamation of sadness and frustration, and then exhaled when it ebbed"Just remembering things is all."

Hinata gave a weak unsure smile. "I- well, we know these past few weeks have been hard for you. I didn't know if you wanted visitors or not so seeing you is kind of relieving."

Infront, Neji slowed his strides. Naruto noticed the side of his eye glanced back at them. He avoided his gaze. "Yeah…but I'm better. Really. It's been a long month and then some but I don't think being sad will help me find who did it." 

"Don't be hesitant to ask for our help. You are our friend after all..." Neji said, he sounded a little stilted but Naruto enjoyed his support all the same "Any possible knowledge that may help that passes me will pass you, be assured."

"I could send my stealth team to assist Karin if she got a trail."Hinata added "I also will relay any information I find."

"And that silly nonsensical group chat we all had in highschool still works."Neji scoffed, but it was one of fondness"Lee and Tenten especially blew up my phone asking if you were ok, so I'm taking it that they wouldn't mind you asking for help either."

_You are never alone._

Sakura's words echoed a cozy warmth into his chest. 

He wasn't alone and he was slowly but surely realizing it. 

"Thanks guys," he smiled,"That means a lot."

-

A couple more minutes of walking placed them in front of a black metal fence surrounded by a grove of trees. Hinata flicked her hands in what Naruto knew as one of the Hyuga's highly coveted sealing spells. The enchantment casted emitted a soft green glow over the gate locks before they clicked open. He wondered how many doors in the Hyuga estate could only be opened by their magic.

"Most likely all of them given how paranoid they are."Naruto said in barely a whisper

"Naruto did you say something?"Hinata asks with a small mmile

Naruto shook his head quickly, there was something hiding behind that sweet smile he didn't like. Her lavender core had also stilled completely. "Nope, nothing."

Up ahead was a small warehouse with a truck out front, already cranked and hovering off the ground. A tall man with small white horns and three green colored eyes rounded the warehouse corner with a tablet, pointing left and right, his requests coming off more like demands. He started to approach Naruto and before he could even manage a simple 'Hi' a gun was shoved abruptly into his hands.

"My name is Injunie" He spoke fast and didn't spare a glance up from his tablet" If the merchandise is attacked you protect it, the goods are exported safely and you get paid? Capeesh? Good." 

He hurried back off to the truck directing an angry insult at a man who'd nearly dropped a box.

"Sorry for his attitude...."Hinata frowned "He's a little stressed."

Naruto waved dismissively. "It's fine."

He took another glance at the man as he whisked around moving boxes with levitating spells, punching numbers in his tablet and effortlessly shutting down any who tried to argue against him. He did his job and he did it well it seemed. 

"I'm surprised to see another non human in these gates." Naruto thought aloud "You know with the Hyuga pride in being human and all."

Before he could stop the words they clumsily tumbled out of his mouth forgetting where he was and who he was talking to. He shot an alarmed look at Neji and Hinata who were giving him severely offended stares. 

Sometimes he wished he knew how to keep his big mouth shut sometimes.

"I–! Wait I didn't mean it like that–"Naruto blurted 

"Oh naruto we–"Hinata started 

"Hinata let him speak."Neji interrupted

Naruto took a short breath before continuing "I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to accuse you two, it's just that I'm…You know how it was for me in highschool. Sure for the most part I was welcome, but some spaces I was kicked out on my ass and told to _leave_ …it's just pleasant to see is all."

There was another reason why his mother and father never let him come to the estate. The Hyuga's were notoriously known for their activism against the way Konoha were allowing non-human people to live and integrate into human society. Although he had heard Hinata's father was vehemently trying to turn that around, the Hyuga elder's damage was done. His parents didn't want that type of attention on their non-human son if they could help it so they had Hinata and Neji come over to the Uzumaki mansion instead.

After an uncomfortably prolonged silence he heard Neji sigh. Remorse and disgust pulled at his every word. "You're correct...our predecessors have made it really hard for Hyuga's to be seen as anything but disgustingly abhorrent towards people who aren't like us. It's frankly embarrassing and disgraceful."

Hinata gave a small smile and placed a gentle and soft hand on his forearm. They were with him through all of his school days and they had hung out with him and defended him multiple times before, even against their own family members that attended school with them.

Sure they don't have souls but that doesn't mean they can't think and have opinions of their own.

Naruto smiled at Hinata as she rummaged through her satchel and handed him some yellow

magic encapsulated bullets. 

"Here, extra in case you need them."

"Am I the only one?"Naruto asked, he curiously examined the gun in his hands. It had the same build of a magicless hand gun except it's barrel was clear and instead of loading from the bottom it loaded from the top. "I mean I'm sure I could take some small time muggers–"

"No I'll be going with you."Neji said "I know you can't drive."

Naruto quickly retorted. "I can drive!"

"Not well. I still don't know how you ended up in twelve car crashes in the same year." 

"They weren't all my fault!"

"Naruto if I remember correctly one out of twelve were not your fault. Maybe you should let Neji drive."Hinata suggested with a shy grin "Just for your safety ok?"

They walked over to the truck, Naruto crawled into the passenger seat and turned the seat warmers on while Neji listened to Injunie listing off the possible attackers. He overheard some that he recognized but none that really struck out to him as particularly dangerous. 

As they pulled out of the lot Naruto waved his hand out the window, politely returning the gesture Hinata used to send them off. 

-

The complicated back streets of Konoha were absconded from the main roads and woven through the large ring of forest that clung to the bottom of the mountains. Only large supply trucks and well versed travelers drove along these paths which made it perfect for crime to transport goods. Some even made highly illegal teleportation wards in the tunnels to take them somewhere miles from where they started. The hyugas being one of them.

They had entered a tunnel and came out fifty miles ahead, Naruto nearly lost his breakfast at the uneasy speed and claustrophobic sensation that was analogous with teleportation magic. 

"Please don't throw up in the truck." Neji had plead

Naruto gave him a petulant scowl in return and stuck his tongue out. "That just makes me want to throw up."

"You're so unbelievably childish."

Neji had selected a route that would take them from the west side of Konoha to the east in an hour drive considering they don't run into any problems. Interactions between them in the first few minutes of their car ride was short and shallow. He knew Neji was just trying to be vigilant but it was mind numbingly boring. After a few more attempts at conversation from Neji he gave up and resorted to entertaining himself. 

Kicking his feet up on the dashboard he spun his gun skillfully on his index finger.

"Could you not do that?"Neji asks "What if it goes off?"

"It won't."

Naruto continued to twirl the gun, a movement he learned in a film. He flicked his gun up at the windshield.

"You wanna take this cargo?"Naruto drawled "You gotta go through me!"

He could practically hear Neji's eyes rolling as he made fake gun sounds, his finger pressing lightly on the trigger. 

"Naruto if that gun happens to go off, you don't get paid."

Naruto put the gun down and grumbled. "Can you at least talk then?"

"We are on a job that requires focus-"

"Just run them over, they can try to mug us but we have a _car_."Naruto mumbled emptying the bullets out onto his lap "you think they're going to cast any spells or have a whole villain monologue when a car is barreling eighty miles per hour at them?" 

Neji didn't reply, he flicked his eyes towards the bullets that he had emptied out. "Why did you just empty the gun." 

"Mmm. Well you said if the gun goes off I don't get paid."

"You need the gun to shoot not play games with."A tired sigh escaped the man 

The weary tone in his normally stern voice pulled sourly in Naruto's gut. Starting to feel slightly bad for troubling him he went quiet. He knew Neji didn't even want to go on this small escort mission. A job that is meant for grunts he is doing because his boss, who is his uncle, won't listen to a word he has to say. He replaced the bullets and allowed Neji a couple minutes of silence, then spoke again.

"Ok...how about you lead the conversation then. We haven't seen each other since graduation. I'm sure you have questions."

"I don't."

_Ouch._

"Really nothing?"Naruto asked

As Neji changed lanes and passed in front of a car moving too slow, a look he saw on Hinata multiple times passed his features. Whenever an important decision had to be made both Hyugas furrowed their brows and chewed the bottom left of their lip. Naruto deduced it down to a specialized type of training they might've had when younger as the Hyuga's were very adept at decision making. While he criticized their extreme paranoia, he had to admit it had helped them multiple times against the Uchiha's alliance with the Nara family. 

"Have you ran into any Renegade operatives recently?"

Naruto's eyes widened, he looked over at Neji and searched for the scarce possibility that he may be joking."Renegade?" Naruto his voice in a hissed whisper of disbelief "Didn't the Uchiha's wipe them out a few years ago?"

"Yes,...but some operatives of mine claim they saw the symbol, they took some pictures."

While at a stop light, Neji brought the picture up on his phone and handed it to Naruto. Sure enough, the recognizable symbol of a smiley face with a sharp toothed smile and X'd out eyes were spray painted above a couple of dead bodies.

"Are you sure some stupid kid didn't do this?"

"We can't be sure about that but we can be sure those two bodies had the Renegade mark on their skin. Swipe left."

Naruto slid the picture to the left and saw the smiley face shoddily etched in black ink onto both of the men's calves. 

The sight of it drummed up an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

The Renegades were an uncouth gang formed by a bunch of bounty hunters that threatened a lot of operations led by the crime syndicates of Konoha. They would often tip off policemen of potential meeting places, lead full on planned assaults against entire families. A lot of them snuck their way into gangs, hoping to rot them from the inside out. Since many policemen were fond of their help, the unsightly crimes they did were swept under the rug. Things like live human experimentation, grotesque mass killings and horrifying torture chambers were only a small dip into what he saw during their long four year terror. 

The Uchiha's stepped in at their peak, and like taking a detergent pen to a giant shit stain they ruthlessly scrubbed every last trace of Renegade from existence.

He was in fourth year when he heard they had been taken out in a weeks time, nobody could believe it. A family known for their slow approach had snapped and killed off an entire network sum of five hundred people. Often he'd seen some of his Uchiha classmates with bandages and bruises, near the end of the week long massacre all of them had skittish demeanors that never wore off. Sometimes if a noise was loud enough they'd bolt for the nearest weapon, whether that be a pencil or an actual knife hidden somewhere on their person. The counselors at the school were paid hush money by what he had guessed were the Uchiha elders to keep absolutely quiet about the PTSD they had inflicted on the poor highschool students. 

Naruto knew Renegade were troublesome and so did anyone else involved in the underground. The small mention of a possible operative could send everyone back into a frenzy.

"I sent two agents to take care of some rag tag group of muggers that were bothering our weapons smith."Neji continued "But when they went to investigate the muggers were dead already, we couldn't determine if the muggers were tattooed before or after it happened...but seeing the mark has my uncle up in arms."

Naruto handed Neji's phone back and slid his feet from the dash, stretching them on the floor of the car instead. "I haven't seen anything but if I do I'll let you know...I mean hopefully it's just a copycat case but…"

"There's too much at risk if it is brushed off as a coincidence."

Now the conversation was truly dead, Neji had taken it out back and shot it in the head and Naruto wasn't enthused about it. How was he supposed to spend the rest of his half hour? Certainly not fretting over the repugnant possibility that Renegade may be looking to revive itself, not that he wouldn't have an appropriate panicked reaction later, it's just that now he was in the middle of a mission that required him to have some semblance of attentiveness. 

Naruto had decided that riding in silence would be the best course of action. He latently realized Neji most likely brought up that serious conversation to achieve silence, and now he sat feeling like a trapped animal lured with a piece of food. 

Stupid and anxious. With a twinge of regret.

Falling into Neji's trap left him with unwanted information, he didn't need it, not now at least. What he wanted was to get onto the case of his parents killer as soon as the day was over. Now the possibility that he could do that was slim. The moment he told the current Uzumaki boss–his aunt Chitose–that there might be a resurgence of Renegade, he was going to be put on a stealth team to gather information. The thought of hiding the knowledge came,but the sharp pang of petinance that rose after squashed the notion immediately. Withholding this information could mean lives being put at stake and it would be all because of his own selfishness. 

Pulling himself from thought, Naruto had caught a flash of black in the corner of his eye in the rear view. He would've passed it off as a tree until he saw it move, his eyes now registered a gun pointing straight at the back window.

"Neji! Attackers!" He called out, readying his gun "On the back left!"

He could feel his magic churning expectantly under his skin, ready to be used in case he found his gun empty. Neji swerved to the right, clipping the side of the road while Naruto ducked, evading a bullet that nearly burrowed itself in his shoulder. A few more shots rang out, none of which hit the car. 

"Keep driving I'll get rid of them. Open the sunroof." Naruto unbuckled his seat belt and looked towards Neji who pointed a glowing finger at Naruto's chest, his eyes still on the road.

Once he was hit with the light a tingly sensation that strangely reminded him of peppermint shocked his body. 

"It's a protection spell, it's weak but it should protect against minor wounds."

Naruto smiled "Thanks."

Neji cranked back a knob in the center of the console, the truck sped up, the high pitched whistle of the strained engine rang loudly in his ears. 

"If someone jumps out front I will not stop, until it's clear."

Naruto gave a short nod before pulling himself halfway out into the sunroof. An attacker flung themselves from the cliff above, but he took his aim and planted a bullet right between their eyes before they could land on him. The lifeless form smacked against the truck's side and crumpled onto the street below. He took a deep breath and hoisted himself onto the roof of the vehicle, steadying himself on top of the trailer he offed three more enemies hidden in the cliff side. His aim with a gun was impeccably well and he took pride in it. It was the only thing no one could wrench away from him, not even Sasuke. He might've been better at spells, had better reflexes and could mimic and perfect everything he saw to a T, but Naruto's aim, in all the years he's known him, he could not replicate. 

He found himself out of bullets for the last few hiding in the cliff sides. The truck jerked to the right, pain bloomed on his ankle where he had slipped near the pond earlier and it caused him to careen along with the vehicle. An enemy landed on the truck dressed in all black, a sword in hand with all intent to kill Naruto who had no bullets.

_Wait._

Naruto gasped in an epiphany and rummaged through his pockets pulling out Hinata's extra bullets. His hands shaking with adrenaline filled nerves as he packed them into the slot. 

The man bolted at him, purple colored magic pulsing through his sword. He didn't have enough time to pull himself up.

"Dammit-"He growled through his teeth, he fired twice into the man's calves 

He used the moment of his enemy's pain to shove himself up and run straight into man forcing him off the back of the truck and to their demise.

His ankle throbbed and his chest heaved with its exertion, he did a final sweep before dropping himself back through the sun roof and into the passenger seat. He didn't even register that he was bleeding from his temple until he went to wipe sweat from his brow and saw red coating his fingers.

Neji hastily unbuckled his seat belt while the car drifted on auto pilot. His words were frantic but sharp, "Are you alright? Did you get shot? There's a med kit-" 

"I'm fine ...it's just my ankle, I sprained it when I nearly fell into the pond. When the truck turned right I fell, might have bumped my head, it's just a scratch." 

"Good…"Neji's form deflated in relief and he sat back in his chair. "That's good."

After having a few minutes to collect himself Naruto noticed the car was driving it's own. He scowled in betrayal "The car is driving by itself I could have driven!"

"It needs an adept driver behind the wheel in case it veers off course."Neji retorted his seat belt back across his chest and his hands gripped firmly on the wheel "I wasn't going to let you drive. I told you that. Also put a bandaid on that cut before it gets infected. Hinata wont take kindly to me reporting that you had survived fine but a cut ended you." 

The ride came to an end when they hit the meeting point for the goods in east Konoha, an abandoned grocery parking lot that looked like it hadn't been used in decades. The customers came prepared with a lift and a truck of their own to take the goods back with them. 

They glanced at Naruto once over and paid an extra fee for the trouble. But it was clear from the disgusted tone used they just saw how rumpled and dirty he looked and decided to take pity on him.

The laugh Neji made when he had counted an extra thirty dollars had Naruto in a scowl the entire car ride to the center of Konoha city. 

He parted from Neji at the shopping center where he bought and changed into new clothes. The ones he wore had spatters of dirt and blood, luckily it was mostly dirt, dirt doesn't make people call the police.

Now he sat outside a busy cafe, sipping a spicy chai latte that complimented the shortbread cookies bought with it. He was just sinking his teeth into the last of the buttery confections when an alert rang from his back pocket, specifically a chime for an important mission.

"Really? This last minute?" Naruto sighed and lifted himself to retrieve his phone from his back pocket. He answered the call with a mouth full of cookies. "It's Naruto."

"Are you seriously out eating!" Naruto jerked the phone from his sensitive ears, Karin yelled loudly enough for some of the customers around him to turn to look his way "We were looking all over for you! Your phone was off-"

"Yeah, yeah, _I'm sorry_. I took a job I needed to get out of the house. What is it?" 

"We have a job, it's really important so get your ass over here." 

Naruto brought the cup up to his lips and chugged the rest of the liquid, it scalded his tongue but he wasn't going to let a good chai go to waste. Realizing he could've just taken it with him he frowned all the way to toss his trash into a nearby can. 

"If it's this important of a job why is it rushed, this sucks major fucking ass I just got from a misson." He zipped his jacket up to his nose, a nippy breeze rushed past and started to wave a hand to become a taxi

"Boohoo, suck it up buttercup."

Sometimes he hated his cousin. 

"Give me a run down."

"Well luckily it's a favored kind of mission for an idiot like you. A classic bust in, wreak havoc, steal the target and bust out."

While not wanting to admit Karin was right, the sound of a reckless mission lightened his mood, a chance to cut completely loose only happened every once in a while. He was usually forbidden to use magic on missions just because of the uncontrollable variable of his power he held. In these cases he could use his highly destructive type magic to his heart's content without fear of jeopardizing the mission.

He was climbing into the back seat of the taxi when he realized he still had the gun tucked into his coat pocket. He'd have to return it when he saw Neji again…but he could spare to use it a little during his mission, it's not like he stole it on purpose, plus it was a good gun why wouldn't he use it.

"Who's the target?"His voice in a hush as to not let the taxi driver into his conversation 

"A Sunagakure city official, you know the one."

Naruto grit his teeth, a spark of his magic jumped from his clenched fist. "The bastard that attacked Sakura's division?" 

Five months ago, they had gotten word that an attack had been launched on the medical division, Sakura swiftly took care of it in no time at all but it still caused his anger to swell. The amount of rebuilding they had to do put a dent in funds for two months.

"Yeah, that bastard. Sounds like he has a lot of guards protecting him too. The coward. Can't even face the Uzumaki clan with his own balls."

He was about to reply when a loud fiery shout crackled from the phone. 

"He's coughing up every penny spent on the wreckage of the hospital!"He heard Sakura yell slightly muffled, she was probably behind Karin "The moment I see his stupid ass face it's on!"

A fond smile eased onto his face as he looked out the window of the taxi "Let's give em' hell then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to pop on here and explain the diffrence between raw ambient magic Naruto felt in the begining during vs the magical signatures.
> 
> Ambient magic is Raw magic, it comes from the core, think of it as an aura that sticks to things when you walk past something or brush something. Naruto can discern this type of magic, but no one else can because they dont have his magical core ability.
> 
> A Magical Signature is magic that has been transformed and effectively diffrent from raw magic, Naruto does not have a Magic Signature seeing ability like Hinata or Karin, so while he can feel that magic has been used in an area, unless it is raw he cannot see or feel it like he can with Ambient magic.
> 
> Everyone can see the color and form of magic being used but after it's done being used, only those people with a Magical Signiture seeing ability can see the residue.
> 
> Thats all! Thanks for reading! please comment your thoughts.


	3. In His Opinion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke tries to quell his anger and begin preparing for his mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO SORRY. I haven't updated in forever because I wasn't satisfied with the chapters and then Covid happened, also my mental health was in a horrible place, but im back now and hopefully will have more regular updates. I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter but I decided to post it since I'm really excited for the next chapter.

In Sasuke's opinion, there was nothing worse than stewing in pent up anger without anything to take it out on. His magic grew volatile, rushing through his veins like a freight train, always trying to find a way to escape and release itself.

The longer he looked at the pathetically pompous elders sit upon their pillows of blue and silver the worse it got. Magically lit torches on the columns of the dispatch chamber cast shadows over the elder's features making it hard to see them, but he didnt need to see them to feel their displeasure. He just knew he should've kept his concerns to himself.

Sasuke has known ever since he was six to never rely on his elder's. Most would tell him six was a very young and depressing age to give up hope in the older generation's supposed wisdom filled guidance, but he knew masked failure when he saw it and it rolled off the Uchiha leaders in waves. It was all fake. The social posturing, the condescending turns and twists of their neck to put their noses up higher. They acted as if it would hide the stench of negligence that clung to them like wet paint. He would never be his brother who adhered to their every word, he would never be his father who broke his back to bend to their every whims, and he would never be his mother who bit her normally acerbic tongue to please them. He vowed that at a tender age of six and he got shit for it.

_"He's unruly and needs to be put in his place."_

They said. 

" _Itachi will be far more suitable, we are lucky he's the eldest."_

They said. And when itachi left and disappeared off the face of the earth it was :

_"You will listen to us, you will be the scion your older brother was better fit for, now, sit and be competent for once."_

Presently, at nineteen years old, he was stuck in an never ending cycle. Sometimes he wanted to fix his family and restore its previous greatness and other times he just wanted to burn everything the Uchiha's ever was and ever will be to the ground. Sure nobody around them could see the cracks, the careless mistepps his family made, the useful connections they had slowly dwindling, but he knew once the rest of the underground did, it would be the end of them. No other family would pass up the chance to kick a powerful old money family while it's down. They weren't noblemen. It was either be stable at the top or lose all you have and end up clinging onto the lower rungs. 

His festering anger and inner monologue was interrupted as the tell-tale sound of heavy thud of boots neared his row of agents. The Commander was a giant–Sasuke suspected there was a bit of inhuman blood in him that made him that size– standing at least two feet tall above each agent, with a shaved head, large hulking muscles and a pair of sharp hazel eyes. The gruff man grimaced, grunted and passed on to the next group of agents. To anyone else the action would be perceived as disapproval, but being around the man since birth had him knowing it was just his round about way of saying 'satisfactory'. 

As he stared forward, the anger started to bubble back up to the surface and began to show on his face, chipping at his expertly veiled expression. His upper lip twitched every so often, his eyelid spasmed, he even felt his neck start to flush. Shikamaru to his right nudged him in his side with his elbow.

"Cool it." Shikamaru whispered 

He shouldn't be angry, he was foolish to think the elders would listen to him at all, but it was the fact they wouldn't acknowledge danger that pissed him off. They were supposed to be the protectors of the Uchiha family and they should take any and all precaution to avoid disaster, but there they sat on their stupid throne above the agents with self important looks. As if they didn't brush off what could be serial murders a few hours ago.

Remembering the conversation had his blood boiling all over again.

-

The common room the elder's normally hung around in was disgusting and dingy. No matter how many clearing spells cast over the space it stubbornly remained smelling like smoke and old people. Much like the ones who frequently occupied it. The dark blue walls were tinged grey with pipe ash and the floors were littered with playing cards, shoes and egg shell colored pillows that once upon a time had been white.

"The neck is the most common way to off a target," Goro Uchiha had grumbled, stroking his greying beard. He was in the middle of a chess game with his wife, not even looking up to acknowledge his grandson "Looking too far into things can be a misstep."

Despite the unpleasantries he remained with his back straight, eyes sharp and his voice clear. Sasuke was far too concerned of the possibility that there may be a serial murder on the loose to be bothered by something frivolous like the sorry state at which the room–a room that was once his father's study–was maintained.

Goro made his move on the chessboard. His wife let out a distressed whimper. "A coincidence Sasuke. A coincidence."

"But, it was the same exact way." Sasuke pulled the autopsy done by the Haruno medical division in front of Goro, he struggled to keep his tone respectful when the old man pulled a face at the paper as if it reeked of something awful. "Both in their beds, both at the neck and even the time. Twelve o'clock at midnight, the positions they were in, set side by side with their heads thrown back. As if displaying the laceration. They're similar."

"Sasuke, I'm glad you are finally taking your soon to be job seriously, but this is ridiculous." The pinched nasally voice of Mitsuo Uchiha crowed at him from the furthest right corner of the room. He, like Goro, wasn't looking up at him. The man was shuffling a deck of cards for a group of his friends to play poker."You either come to us with a solid case for your paranoia or you keep it to yourself. Do you know how much ruckus your theory would cause? That someone is going around offing heads of big families? Pure chaos is what it would cause."

Sasuke's face had gotten hot, with anger mostly but humiliation was slowly creeping in behind it.

A callous laugh tittered from his right. "If anything the Uzumaki's deserved to get put down a peg." Kaede Uchiha– Goro's wife–gave a wry smirk leveling her eyes with Sasuke's "All they have is that incompetent Jinchuriki boy as a son. However are they going to manage with that?" 

Mitsuo snorted. "Look what we have to deal with, I say they have a fair chance."

Sasuke stormed out of the elders room as a chorus of laughter roared behind him. He was still seething when he got ready for his mission, he nearly broke his prized sword slicing at a practice dummy too hard when its face morphed into the likeness of many of the elders present in the common room. 

-

Even now in a meeting chamber full of agents that would jump him if he tried, the urge to wring each and every one of their old frail necks filled his conscious thoughts the more he stared at the platform where they sat.

He tried to focus on something else, the cool draft of the expansive throne room, the blue spiraling dragons arching above the elder's heads, he even tried to name and recognize all thirty agents present. But his mind would always go back to that damned common room. The humiliation he felt, the anger and frustration were rising and falling like waves. The more he stuffed his emotions to the back of his mind the more his heart protested and ached, telling him to feel them in their entirety because they were justified. 

The moment all of his anger began to become a crescendo about to make him do something reckless like storm out of the meeting hall, a rough, low all too familiar voice cut through his mind.

_Remain calm. A mission on an occupied mind is a dangerous one._

Normally it was his mother's voice straightening him up but it seemed today his father wanted to scold him beyond the grave. 

Sasuke took a deep shuddering breath that was hopefully quiet enough that no one closest to him heard and scooped out all of his emotions, putting them aside until he was only thinking of the mission. His goal of proving the elders wrong could wait just a little longer. 

Finally the commander walked down the center isle of parted agents with his hands behind his back stopping in front of the elders.

"Everything is prepared." The commander's gruff voice carried out into the cavernous chambers "We will set out immediately on your orders."

Goro, who sat front and center on the elevated platform, nodded. "Dispatch at once."

Each agent filtered out of the meeting hall in a single file with the commander leading them to the trucks near the front gates.

The night air hit him like a wall of ice, so void of light and warmth. His heart pained to see the sun, to feel its rays as he did yesterday morning. The anger he felt was abiding and all that was left was disappointment and a sense of helplessness he never liked to feel.

_Focus on the mission Sasuke. Find your peace._

Sasuke allowed his eyes to flutter shut as he imagined the sunrise over an ocean. It's glittering waters shifting back and forth over an orange hued shore. The beams of light so full and bright, embracing him in its splendor. Finally he felt the last dredges of anger fizzle out.

_Just one mission, a simple defense mission, and then I can investigate._

He opened his eyes to a confused looking Taichi craning his neck back at him, his eyebrows raised meaningfully. Sasuke shook his head minutely and followed Taichi and Shikamaru into one of the trucks. 

_Fuck the elders._

-

It didn't take long for Sasuke to remember why riding in the dispatch trucks were the very worst part of a field mission.

A lot of people didn't wash their ripe smelling armour and as if that wasn't bad enough, the floor was always covered in a grimy layer of dirt and blood spill. He could feel and hear the slippery granules of gravel under his shoes when he walked or shifted in his seat, it was disgusting. Nobody ever cleaned the seats so whatever fluids spilled on the fabric had stayed and marinated. He always tried not to think about it too much but every so often a stale vomit or piss scent would woft from the cushions and had nostrils begging for assisted suicide.

Sasuke scrunched his face as he witnessed a younger teen drop his granola bar, pick it right back up and pop it in his mouth. He willed himself to tear his eyes away from the horrific scene and looked elsewhere.How these people lived without contracting terminal disease he would never know. 

Taichi clapped a firm hand on his shoulder, snapping him from the sanitary train wreck happening all around him. "You ok? You look a little green."

“Well for one, this truck is filthy, possibly the worst one ive seen since that garbage smelling truck three years ago, second, that nasty fucker over there just ate his granola bar after he dropped it on this disgusting floor," Sasuke said it loud enough so the boy could hear, and he was more appalled when the teenager just shrugged it off and took another heaping bite. He wanted to puke. 

Taichi snickered, of course the simpleton would find that amusing.

“What about the elders?” Shikamaru asked, looking just as unimpressed as he always did “ You were all pissed about it earlier. You didn't even tell us what you went to them about.”

Sasuke placed his chokuto on his lap and messed with the shuriken charm dangling off the end and chewed the inside of his cheek. He would tell them about his suspicions later, there were too many nosy people that would listen in on them. Instead he replied, "I can't jeopardize a mission because of some stubborn senile fools. I've put it behind me...for now.”

"Old farts chewed me out earlier too about the stupid bullet deal, it’s like they cant comprehend basic english, i told them it wasnt my fault that the bullets were all defective and shit. One of these days I'm gonna grab their old necks and…”Taichi paused in his rant, staring at Sasuke’s lap “Wait what's that?" 

Taichi reached out to touch the shuriken charm, in a swift motion Sasuke smacked his cousin's hands with the but end of his sword. 

“Ow! What was that for!”

"Don't touch it." He snapped

"Have you really not seen it before? It's always been there."Shikamaru drawled from his left.

"Well sorry I dont go looking at other men's swords that often."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at Taichi who started to chuckle at his own joke. "Are you really laughing at your own childish joke?"

Before Taichi could retort, everyone quieted down as their commander had boarded the truck. His hazel eyed glare was pure vitriol but nobody dared show weakness, the ones who were slouching over their knees when he sat down straightened immediately as he began to describe their mission.

"Alright you ingrates."The man's voice was as pleasant as falling elbow first in a pile of rocks "The mission is simple, Protect the sandy ass son of a bitch and try not to die. You know your positions and your duties dont fuck it up."

The truck began to move and lurched them all forward, there were a few choice words towards the driver but eventually all attention returned to their commander. As always Shikamaru was the first person to ask for clarifications.

"Who does he need protecting from anyway? How are we going to fight what we don't know?"Shikamaru had his hand lazily raised in the air as if asking assistance from a teacher in a classroom "What could he be so scared of that he needs thirty of us?"

"He could be scared of the damn toilet he shat in Nara, it doesn't matter. If we got the job to protect him, we protect him." The commander flipped through his clipboard reviewing the positions of his operatives.

"Come on dad."Taichi grinned, sticking his elbow in the man's side, without the elders bearing down on them, everyone in the compartment was a lot more relaxed. "You have to be at least some type of curious what's got that man so spooked."

"How many times do I have to tell you, don't call me dad while we are on a mission Taichi."He spat, spreading his legs out in front of him "No I am not curious because I am damn well confident that whatever is coming for him can't beat thirty of us."

"And if that confidence is misplaced? The elders have thrown us into multiple situations where we were unprepared" Sasuke asked 

The truck went silent as the commander worked his jaw, silently acknowledging Sasuke's concern. Every agent present knew full well the Uchiha elders liked to seem they had everything under control, but ever since they took over mission planning from the commander a few years ago every mission has had something go wrong. Agent death's have risen ten fold.

After a few moments, the commander smacked his teeth and shrugged, folding his giant tanned arms against his chest. 

"It's not like we haven't run up shit creek before, we'll be fine."

Unsatisfied with the answer, Sasuke retrieved his metal file from a pocket in his cargo pants and unsheathed the sword on his lap. The stress he held against the unknown melted off into the blade of his chokuto one swift motion at a time. He was determined to complete this mission without a chip this time, the last time he barely managed to convince Tenten to fix it for him.

"That sword isn't getting any sharper spare our ears Sasuke."Shikamaru groaned 

Sasuke threw a short glare but ultimately wiped his sword clean and sheathed it. "Well sorry I'm trying to prepare for a deadly mission."

"Nobody's going to fucking die Sasuke."The commander said, his thick brows knitting in an angry ‘V’ on his forehead "We have five minutes until we get to the building, Nara, Taichi, Sasuke, you three will be Team A. Rush out to your positions the moment we touch that drop off point, that means fast Shikamaru. No staring at the clouds."

"I wasn't staring at the clouds. I was stalking an enemy."

There were a few snorts at Shikamaru's expense before he continued. "And Sasuke no engaging enemies until I say so, keep your com on for fucks sake it let's me know your location, we don't need a repeat of last time when you fell off that building and we couldn't find you."

Nobody laughed at Sasuke, it was a combination of him being the Uchiha heir and fear. The last time someone made fun of him they were put in the hospital wing and that was years ago. They knew to keep their amusement to themselves. Unfortunately everyone except for Taichi got this memo, he was giggling behind his hands like a giggling school girl. 

"If they attack me I'm attacking back and the communicator hurts my ear drums, Maybe if Taichi wasn't so loud."

"That I can agree with. Taichi, stop yelling into the speaker."Shikamaru stretched out and spun a Kunai on his finger tip "everyone can hear you just fine."

"Well maybe if people listened to me I wouldn't have to yell-"

"Enough! The three of you are impossible.” The commander hissed angrily "You all move in sixty seconds." 

Sasuke reached up to his ear to turn on his com, he could hear his other teammates from the other truck going over mission details and their respective positions. Their chatter wore on his already adrenaline thinned patience so he arranged a channel that would only connect to team A and the commander. 

As his mental countdown to his destination narrowed closer to one, his mind wandered back to the times he had always gotten antsy right before a mission, sometimes he was sure it was excitement, others he felt like he was going to keel over and empty his lunch. Sasuke had been young and new to missions, of course his parents trained him every day, drilling the basics into him but nothing compared to a real one and he had barely kept it together those first few times. 

Now all he felt was nothing.

As long as he held his blade in his hands and kept his mind busy repeating his mission's duties then that's all he would feel. Numb and desolate in the face of what could be death.

His body began to cool with the activation of his magic and as always people within range shrunk into themselves, trying to warm their bodies with what little heat they had left. Sometimes he'd get angry looks from other agents, as if he could control how his magic felt to people.

Sasuke wondered if they ever thought about how he felt. 

_Of course not. They don't have the braincells for that._

A sniper in particular kept his glare at him. Sasuke stood his ground keeping the hilt of his sword gripped tight and his stony expression trained on the agent. It was a thinly veiled threat but an effective one, the sniper's resolve shattered like glass and his eyes shot to the ground.

Sasuke also averted his gaze once he felt he got his point across and examined his blade for any faults until the truck began to slow. Why people wanted to try his patience today he did not know, but he was sure eventually he would snap. 

"Alright, team A." The commanders rough voice called through the chatter 

Straightening in his seat he gave his full attention. The Commander's sharp amber eyes swept a severe look over his men, telling them in a silent speech what they needed to do above all.

 _Do not fail._ _At all cost, do not fail._

"Tell me when you get to your positions." The Commander said stiffly "Good luck."

The moment the back of the truck rattled open Sasuke was off and running at high speeds, weaving through thickets of trees that blurred in his side vison, occasionally hopping on their branches to use them as leverage. Static roared in his ears, the wind whipped through his hair. The light fluttery feeling in his chest made a faint smile tug his lips, he felt free, nobody could ever take the sensational feeling of running away from him. 

He soared out into the clearing behind the building the client was supposed to meet his guests. Sasuke had studied the floor plans of the place several times before the mission and he found it looked exactly like it had on the paper. A large concrete box like structure, with minimal windows and two distinct floors.

"Sasuke you're going to use all your magic if you keep it up." Taichi said loudly in his ear.

Sasuke ignored him until he scaled the concrete wall and jumped into his position on the roof. "Didn't you take a basic magical theory class? You can't run out of magic, it's called magical exhaustion. But I won't get exhausted because I'm not weak like you," He quipped "Running uses almost nothing of my energy."

"Oh well excuse me, I just don't want you to be all tired and risk being caught with your thumb up your ass when the enemy shows up. I'm in position by the way."

He recoiled and scrunched his nose at the metaphor. "Could you not say that."

"Well no matter how gross he says it he's right, if you pass out then we have no eye on the target...I mean well we have the snipers but they're...well...you've seen them."Shikamaru chimed in "So it would be for the best to save your sparks for later Sasuke…oh and i'm in position."

Sasuke pushed down the urge to groan in annoyance as he pressed the com in his ear to inform the Commander they were all in position.

"Alright, keep watch Sasuke, Shikamaru, Taichi be on standby."

He shuffled closer to the edge of the roof and crouched down to watch over the entrance. Thirty minutes had passed and there was only the sight of rustling dry leaves skittering across the parking lot. 

"Yo, when the fuck is this bitch supposed to arrive?"Taichi asks 

"Be patient Taichi."the commander replied "He should be arriving in a few minutes and don't call our client a bitch."

The official was nowhere to be seen for another half hour. Taichi had gotten agitated and started to rant but Sasuke quickly muted him seeing something glittering on the horizon. He inhaled and coaxed his magic to the back of his eye sockets murmuring a quiet sight spell under his breath.

_Grant me the power to see further than the human eye, through the forest and past the meadows, I will it, so I see._

The magic responded immediately to his call.

The image of a sleek looking car hovering down towards the building painted itself vividly behind his lids. It was the car holding the Sanagakure official, two other cars followed him, filled with his guests.

He opened his eyes and unmuted Taichi.

"–and if he doesn't show then we can just split the money, Shikamaru you can get like a quarter."

"A quarter? How is that fair–"

"I spotted him."Sasuke said, his voice was sharp enough to cut through the nonsense on the other side of the line "Three black cars with guests inside he also has three guards with him."

Taichi scoffed. "Whoever is after him surely has him scared shitless. It's kind of pathetic really." 

"Pathetic? Shouldn't we be worried more about what could possibly have him this paranoid?"Shikamaru asked tentatively

As the client stepped from his car Sasuke noticed the skittish nervousness oozing from the man immediately. His gaze flitted to all the positions vulnerable to attack, he walked hunched over and tried to keep his form hidden amongst the small crowd of his friends. One of his guests smacked him on the shoulders and he nearly jumped out of his own skin. The official's friends guffawed claiming he was being laughably paranoid, even as the man played along with them and agreed Sasuke saw the polite smile the man gave never met his eyes. 

With the client and all the guests inside Sasuke kept watch over the entrance. The next two hours were spent communicating to the commander that he had neither seen nor heard anything of concern. What made his boredom worse was the fact that his eyes would droop, slowly pulling him off focus. Sometimes Taichi's random shouting over the com line alerted him of his semi sleep state, other times it was Shikamaru or the Commander asking the status in which he only replied with a non-committal 'nothing' before going back to doing just that. Nothing. 

"Sasuke anything yet?"

Sasuke sighed as he walked back to the edge of the building, he scanned the tree line and the path up to the building where the cars remained parked out front with the chauffeurs sitting in the front seats.

"Nothing."He said shortly crouching on the ledge with his chin resting on the palms of his hands “Nothing at all"

"Something isn't right." Shikamaru whispered 

"Maybe the man was just paranoid Shikamaru."Taichi sounded like he was half asleep himself "And he put us all out here for no fucking reason."

"No. I don't believe that. Nobody puts thirty guards just because of a hunch."

Sasuke looked down over the edge as if the ground below would help him understand what the man was trying to protect himself against. 

"Well there's still nothing-"

When he peered into the cars all the chauffeurs were gone. The car doors left wide open in an eerie state of abandon.

"Somethings happening," Sasuke's voice lowered as his eyes scanned his surroundings. "The chauffeurs are gone."

"Gone? Are they pissing or somethin' ?"Taichi asked

"No! The cars are–"

Sasuke picked up a high pitched whistling noise as the commander yelled something incoherent into his ears. 

Yet he didn't need to hear his warning, he saw it coming at him like a big flaming yellow meteor. 

Sasuke's magic was already crackling at his legs in the face of danger. He flung himself backwards from the attacker's loud perilous landing. 

The air swirled with yellow magic particles, debris kicked up around him when a slight familiar suffocating warmth took the air.

 _It can't be._

Sasuke seethed as he pulled his sword from its sheath, banishing his thoughts at once to face whatever was going to come at him through the dust cloud.

"You're still quicker than a fucking cockroach"The enemy chided, a scathing edge to his tone

The familiarity in the voice made his hands slacken on his weapon. His whole body felt like it was burning up, like he was in the presence of a giant roaring fire. He's felt this before, many _many_ times before. 

Sasuke tightened his hands on his weapon and allowed his magic to cool himself and called upon its power. Static popped all around him and charged his sword, his mind tried to stamp down the heavy amount of deja vu he was feeling.

 _It's not him._ _It isn't him. There is no way in hell that miscreant is here._

"Who the fuck are you?"

The enemy laughed, he could see its form behind the fine cloud of dust kealing over as if what he demanded was the ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. Sasuke knew that irksome rotund laughter, it raised hairs on his neck and all he could think was _why._ A gust of hot wind rushed by, sweeping every bit of debris up into the air and away from the roof. 

His body tensed up almost to a painful degree, he grit his teeth and seethed at the sight of his childhood pain in the ass, Naruto Uzumaki, glowing like a bright fluorescent flame stark against the dark of night. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! My comments are completely open feel free to comment whatever I love constructive criticism!

**Author's Note:**

> Comment please 🙏🙏🙏!! I'm open to constructive critism!


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